This Thursday's Sanfermines bull run, the fastest of 2024

Pamplona (Spain), Jul 11 (EFE).- The running of the bulls on Thursday, the fifth of the Sanfermines, was the fastest so far of the 2024 festivities, at two minutes and thirteen seconds, and ended with seven runners injured, none by horns.

In record time, the bulls from the Domingo Hernández Martín ranch completed the journey from the corrals in Santo Domingo to the bullring in the capital of Navarre, in the north of Spain, through the city centre.

At this speed, the runners, traditionally known as mozos, had great difficulty keeping up with the pace set by the bulls from the start, which also led to numerous falls, as a result of which, according to the first medical report, seven mozos were injured, one of them with head trauma.

The young men are chased by bulls during the fifth running of the bulls of the Sanfermines 2024 in Pamplona this Thursday. EFE/Jesús Diges

As every day of the festival, one of the most international in Spain, at 8:00 (6:00 GMT), with the sound of the first rocket, the running of the bulls began, which left with the grouped herd, made up of the six brave bulls that will be fought this Thursday and the tame ones (cabestros) that accompany them every morning.

On the Santo Domingo slope, the bulls came into contact with the first runners and one of the bulls began to gain speed, which gave rise to runs in front of the horns that are not very common in this section, where the bulls are still usually very close together.

The bull that opened the group entered the Town Hall square knocking down a runner and setting a pace that was easily followed by its brothers at a short distance along Mercaderes Street.

The speed of the race continued, causing the young men to fall and they continued like this until they entered the alley of the square, where once more there were moments of tension next to the fence where several runners were grouped and one of the bulls knocked one of them down.

Although they arrived slightly stretched, the bulls entered the Pamplona Monumental bullring almost at the same time and headed straight to the pens, thus ending this fifth bull run.

The bulls will be fought today by the bullfighters Alejandro Talavante, Daniel Luque and Juan Ortega.