A Cherry Hill man was among three runners gored Monday on the third day of Spain's famed running of the bulls through the cobblestoned streets of Pamplona, the most gorings for one run so far this year.
Thousands of daredevil runners charged ahead of six fighting bulls let loose for the annual San Fermin festival, and the three men were gored by one that broke free from the pack just before entering the city's bullring, a Navarre regional government statement said.
Aryeh Deutsch, 38, of Cherry Hill, who has participated in dozens of bull runs at Pamplona, said he tripped and fell amid a crowd of runners as he dashed ahead of the black bull and saw the animal heading toward him as he lay on the ground.
"The next thing I know I am underneath him, I can see his belly, and I was trying to roll out of the way to get under the fence and, yeah, he got me, he got me in the right calf," said Deutsch, an engineer.
Peter Milligan, a Cherry Hill lawyer who travels with Deutsch each year to Pamplona, said Monday afternoon that his friend was "a little sore" but was expected to "make a 100 percent recovery."
Milligan and Deutsch met as teenagers, went to the same college, and began participating in the running in 2004.
"It's a brotherhood thing," Milligan told an Inquirer columnist last year. "You're with the herd on their last day on earth."
Deutsch didn't realize at first that he had been gored but got behind the fence when he saw the bull turn around instead of heading toward the ring.
It then charged other runners huddled on the ground near the fence, trying to protect themselves from the beast. That's when the two Britons were gored. After several tense moments, the animal was lured away and into the ring by stick-wielding cowherds.
Deutsch at that point saw he had a hole in his pants from the goring and was bleeding, and was taken on a stretcher to a hospital for treatment. The regional government said one of the Britons, aged 20, was gored in the right leg while the other, aged 29, was gored in the left leg.
None of the men was seriously injured, and Deutsch was released within hours. Four other people along the 928-yard course were treated for cuts and bruises. The run lasted just over three minutes.
One person was gored on the first day of this year's San Fermin festival, while none was gored on the second day.
The morning runs are the highlight of the annual festival, which is also a massive street party that attracts many international visitors and became world-famous with the publication of Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.
The bulls used in the centuries-old fiesta can weigh 1,100 pounds and have killed 15 people since record-keeping began in 1924.
Doctors told Deutsch that he received a one-inch puncture wound. The goring was the first that he has received in 53 Pamplona runs. And he was planning to run again Tuesday despite the injury.
"I am moving forward," Deutsch said in an interview from Pamplona. "It's a beautiful thing watching that herd run. They are like a thunderstorm on those cobblestones. We like to say we are running with our bull brothers."
