Europe

Survival guide to bullrunning author gored in Pamplona

Bill Hillman undergoes surgery for serious but not life-threatening injuries

Revellers at the San Fermin festival lie down at the entrance to the area where the bulls are kept as a young wild cow jumps over them. After the morning bull run, the wild cows are released into the bullring one at a time as people test their skills in avoiding them. Photograph: Jim Hollander/EPA

Ashifa Kassam
Wed Jul 9 2014 - 18:07

Ashifa Kassam in Madrid

The American co-author of a book titled Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona has been badly gored in the third bull run of Pamplona’s San Fermin festival. Bill Hillmann (32), from Chicago, was gored in the right thigh, the Navarra regional government said. Despite facing off against the heaviest of Wednesday morning's six bulls – weighing around 600kg (94st 7lb) – Hillmann's injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

The injury comes just one month after Hillmann’s book hit the market. Described as “the ultimate guide to surviving” the festival, it offers tips on the morning bull runs, where runners dressed in white outfits and red scarves dash through the narrow streets of Pamplona pursued by fighting bulls, as well as on how to enjoy the nine days of partying that draws tens of thousands of Spaniards and foreigners to the Navarran capital each year.

Another of the book’s five co-authors, the British writer Alexander Fiske-Harrison, said that Hillmann underwent surgery the same day. Writing on his blog, he said that he had visited Hillmann in the hospital and he seemed to be doing well. In a previous post he highlighted Hillmann’s decade of experience in bull-running, calling him the “best young American runner on the streets today”.

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One of the book's co-authors, John Hemingway, is the grandson of Ernest Hemingway, who shone a spotlight on the San Fermin festival in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.

A 35-year-old Spaniard from Valencia, identified only by the initials of JRP, was also listed in serious condition on Wednesday after being gored in the chest, the Navarra government said. After a hair-raising run that saw one bull separate from the pack and charge at several runners, another three Spaniards were also admitted to hospital with bruises.

Fifteen people have been killed in the festival since record-keeping began in the early 1900s. Dozens more are injured each year, many of them during the panicked, chaotic stampede of the bull runs. – (Guardian service)

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