One for the Bulls

Spain’s San Isidro bullfighting festival suspended after three matadors injured

AFP

Wednesday 21 May 2014 13.50 EDT

For the first time in 35 years, the San Isidro festival, which opens the bullfighting season in Spain, had to be suspended because all the matadors had been injured.

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The first bull on the programme, a black, 532kg animal named Deslio, knocked Mora over during a pass as his yellow and pink cape swirled in the wind.

Mora fell to the sand beneath his cloak, but the bull immediately turned on him, head down, ramming its horn deep into his leg and tossing him over repeatedly.

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The second matador, Antonio Nazare, appeared before the shocked audience to finish off the animal with his sword.

Nazare then faced his own opponent, however, a 537kg brown bull named Feten. The animal dragged the matador along the sand, injuring his knee and forcing him to seek treatment at the bullring’s hospital, the medical report showed.

The third matador, Saúl Jiménez Fortes, entered the ring to fight the same bull. The animal skewered him in the right leg and the pelvis, leaving three 10cm-deep injuries, the bullring doctor said. Fortes managed to kill the beast before he, too, sought medical treatment.