Penultimate Encierro of the Sanfermines 2023: a seriously injured being gored

USPA NEWS - The seventh and penultimate Encierro of the Sanfermines 2023 resulted in 47 assists and three transfers to the hospital, one of them serious. The bulls, from the Victoriano del Río ranch in Madrid, staged some dangerous moments. In one of them, a bull gored a 58-year-old Dutchman: Randy Harms, who received a scrotal wound. According to what his son said shortly after being caught, the wounded man "is laughing" at what happened. Later, the Dutchman acknowledged to the Pamplona media that, according to the doctors, he was "very lucky."

He was the most seriously injured of these Sanfermines, in the absence of the last Encierro that will take place on Friday. “If the shaft enters my groin, it catches the femoral vein and I bleed to death,” he told to Diario de Navarra from the hospital. The shooting occurred shortly before entering the Pamplona bullring, when the runner, originally from Curaçao but residing in the Netherlands, was gored by one of the bulls. It was the first time he had run in the San Fermin running of the bulls and he recognized that "before running I satiated myself and asked" for the protection of San Fermín. “I have lost speed and I have become unbalanced, and then the bull has hooked me. I have noticed how the horn passed through my leg. What has hurt me the most is hitting the ground with my kidneys," he declared to Diario de Navarra shortly after being discharged from the Hospital of Navarra,

Of the 47 Red Cross assistances, 32 were healed for injuries caused by rubbing against the wall or the floor and blows. Two were from footprints, one from a sprain and another from a dislocation. The seventh Encierro of the Sanfermines was fast and tense. The numerous falls of the runners and the speed of the bulls caused the herd to be divided in two. With a duration of 2:18 minutes, it was the fastest Encierro of this year.

It was on Mercaderes street, between the Pamplona City Hall square and the iconic Estafeta street, where the herd divided. Some of the bulls created moments of danger by looking at the runners. However, the general behavior of the pack was one of great nobility. Until reaching the final stretch of the race, where one of the bulls hooked Randy Harms, tearing his pants and turning him over. At risk of being run over by other bulls in the herd.

The bulls from the Victoriano del Río ranch have, according to the experts, a large volume and are "encased, with depth, mobility, travel and quality of their charges, with their faces down." It is a cattle ranch that attracts bullfighting figures who ask for bulls with bravery, good horns and large size. For the second year in a row, this cattle ranch was the star of the penultimate Encierro of the Sanfermines.