Fast, without stragglers and with many falls. The massive second running of the bulls of the 2023 Sanfermines, led by the bulls from the José Escolar ranch, finished the tour in just over 2 minutes and 20 seconds after completing the tour with the animals very united despite the large number of people who filled the route from the slope of Santo Domingo to the bullring.
The bulls have gone about their business in a crowded tour of people. Despite the many spectacular falls, which at some point have generated crowds of people on the margins of the streets, there have been no serious injuries from bull horns.
The Red Cross spokesman, in a first assessment minutes after the running of the bulls, highlighted that the race has left at least four people injured. Three of them have been transferred to the Hospital de Navarra and one that the health services are still evaluating.
Of the four, two occurred on the Mercaderes curve: one due to a contusion with deformity and another due to a non-penetrating injury from a bull horn. The other two have occurred in Estafeta due to a concussion and the last one, who is being evaluated, also due to a concussion on the Telefónica straight.
This has been the second day of the 2023 Sanfermines, one of the most massive of these festivities as it coincides with the first day of the weekend: if there are normally close to 2,000 runners, on Saturday more than 3,000 usually gather. This year, the influx has skyrocketed, with the covid already almost in the memory. This triggers the risks: not only the runners multiply, but also the inexperienced people who put themselves in front of the bulls to run with little or no experience in it.
The horned protagonists of this encierro come from the José Escolar cattle farm, from Ávila, one of the two Spanish currencies of pure Victorino Martín origin. They are usually animals with highly developed antlers, muscular, encased and light in weight —in this case, the lightest weighs 550 kilos and the largest 605. In addition, these cardinal bulls have unpredictable reactions. Last year they staged the third day of the running of the bulls, a race of almost two and a half minutes, leaving two injured by bull horns, 10 in total in their seven participations in the history of the Sanfermines.
In 2022, the second day of running the bulls was carried out by the animals of the Fuente Ymbro ranch and, despite being bulls that arrived with a reputation for being fast, they staged a tense and long race of more than three minutes due to a lagging bull. The bullfight ended with six injured by bruises and none by a bull horn.
