San Fermín 2015: The Running of the Bulls
July 6 to 14, 2015. Ten gored, four clean mornings, and Miura’s closing run in 2 minutes and 5 seconds, the fastest encierro in the modern timing record. Eight runs, every video, and the year the Men in Blazers came to Pamplona.
What 2015 Was Really Like
I was in Pamplona for San Fermín 2015, and that year had a particular dimension for me: Roger Bennett and Michael Davies, the Men in Blazers, came to Pamplona to host live coverage of the Running of the Bulls for the Esquire Network, and I joined them as a third voice on their coverage. Being there as what we called their “third blazer”, on camera with two of the most knowledgeable sports broadcasters in the business, covering the encierro from the street level they had never seen before, was one of the more unusual mornings I have had in Pamplona.
The Miura closer on July 14 was the thing everyone talked about that year and still do: 2 minutes and 5 seconds, the fastest encierro in the modern timing record. I watched that run. The speed of it was not something you could fully process in real time. Only when the clock number appeared did you understand what you had just seen.
Dennis Clancey, Founder, Encierro
The Year Miura Set the All-Time Speed Record
Ten runners gored by horn across eight encierros, but it was the final morning that defined 2015 in the record books. Miura’s 2 minutes and 5 seconds on July 14 is the fastest encierro in the modern timing era, a record that stood through 2026 and beyond. The herd ran compact and fast from Santo Domingo to the ring, covering 849 meters at a pace that produced zero horn gorings and five traumatism injuries.
The gorings that year were concentrated in two mornings: José Escolar on July 11 (four gored in one of the ranch’s most dangerous Pamplona appearances) and Jandilla on July 7 (three gored on the opening morning). Those two runs between them accounted for seven of the ten gorings. Four other mornings finished with zero horn injuries. Off the route, 2015 was also the year the American television personality duo Roger Bennett and Michael Davies of Men in Blazers came to Pamplona on the Esquire Network to cover the fiesta live. Read every year in the full archive, or see how 2015 compares to 2016.
Miura’s 2:05 is the fastest encierro in the modern timing record. It has not been broken.
Every 2015 Encierro, Day by Day
Each run with its ganaderiía, time, horn injuries, and the official RTVE video. The route runs 849 meters from Santo Domingo to the ring; see the route map.
Jandilla
RTVE described it as “fast and dangerous.” The Jandilla opener gored three runners and injured eight more with traumatisms. A hard start to the fiesta that immediately set a high-alert tone for the week ahead.
Del Tajo y la Reina
A fast second morning. Del Tajo y la Reina, a ranch from Cáceres making one of its rare Pamplona appearances, ran in 2 minutes and 14 seconds. One runner gored, two more treated for traumatisms. A relatively controlled morning after the dangerous opener.
Victorino del Río
A clean third morning. The Victorino del Río bulls, known for their agility and fighting instinct, ran the route in 2 minutes and 27 seconds with zero horn gorings. Five runners were treated for traumatisms. The crowd in the plaza received this herd with particular anticipation.
Fuente Ymbro
A clean and uneventful fourth morning. The Fuente Ymbro herd from Cádiz ran the route in 2 minutes and 25 seconds with no injuries of any kind. RTVE listed the result as “no injured”, the only completely clean morning of the 2015 fiesta.
José Escolar
The most dangerous morning of the fiesta and a landmark in José Escolar’s Pamplona history. Four runners gored on a crowded Saturday. One bull turned around just as it left the corrals and had to be returned and transported to the plaza separately, adding to the chaos of a slow, dangerous run.
Conde de la Maza
A calm sixth morning. The Conde de la Maza herd from Salamanca ran the route in 2 minutes and 27 seconds with zero horn gorings. One runner was treated for traumatisms. The route functioned cleanly the day after the difficult José Escolar morning.
Garcigrande
A fast seventh morning with two horn gorings. The Garcigrande herd from Salamanca ran 2 minutes and 12 seconds, the second-fastest run of the fiesta. Two runners gored and one more treated for traumatisms on a crowded Monday morning ahead of the closing Miura day.
Miura
The fastest encierro in the modern timing record. Miura closed the 2015 fiesta in 2 minutes and 5 seconds, covering 849 meters faster than any herd before or since. Zero horn gorings; five runners treated for traumatisms. Miura’s eighth consecutive closing run.
The Stories the Numbers Leave Out
San Fermín 2015 Official Poster
Cartel: “Kilikón” by Javier Erice Larumbe.
The 2015 poster was designed by Javier Erice Larumbe, a Pamplona artist trained at the School of Arts and Crafts. His winning image depicts Kilikón, the beloved giant figure from Pamplona’s parade of Giants and Big-Heads who is traditionally associated with San Fermín festivities. The figure is rendered in warm, festival colors that carry the character’s long popular history into a contemporary graphic.
The poster received 1,511 votes from a total of 5,124 votes cast by citizens of Pamplona, a 29.4% share of the public ballot held in spring 2015. The prize was awarded and the image became the official visual identity for San Fermín 2015.
Source: Ayuntamiento de Pamplona, cartel archive
Winner of the annual cartel contest and the official San Fermín 2015 poster for Sanfermines.
The City in 2015
The chupinazo fired at noon on Monday, July 6, 2015, opening the fiesta from the balcony of City Hall. The Plaza Consistorial was packed with the traditional white-and-red crowd in the usual July heat. Nine days of fiesta followed: the Giants’ Parade, the Riau-Riau procession, the nightly Fuegos Artificiales at the Ciudadela, and eight morning encierros before the Pobre de Mí closed everything at midnight on July 14.
The presence of the Esquire Network team in Pamplona brought American television coverage to the encierros for eight consecutive mornings, live broadcasts beginning at 2 AM ET, with a one-hour recap show at 11 PM. The Feria del Toro ran alongside the encierros from July 7 through July 14, with the six bulls from each morning’s run facing matadors in the afternoon at the Plaza de Toros de Pamplona. The fiesta closed at midnight on July 14 with the candlelit Pobre de Mí in the Plaza del Castillo.
2015, As the World Saw It
A selection of the international coverage of San Fermín 2015.
Find Your 2015 Run
The Pamplona photographers and the Navarra press shoot every morning. These links go to 2015 galleries.
How 2015 Came Together
The planning and key dates, kept on the record.
The poster “Kilikón” by Javier Erice Larumbe was announced as the winner of the public ballot. Erice, trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Pamplona, received 1,511 votes from 5,124 cast, 29.4% of the total.
Eight ranches confirmed: Jandilla, Del Tajo y la Reina, Victorino del Río, Fuente Ymbro, José Escolar, Conde de la Maza, Garcigrande, and Miura. Miura closed for the eighth consecutive year. Del Tajo y la Reina was a notable inclusion, a ranch from Cáceres that ran Pamplona rarely.
The chupinazo opened the fiesta at noon from City Hall. The Esquire Network team, Roger Bennett and Michael Davies of Men in Blazers, arrived in Pamplona to begin eight days of live American television coverage starting July 7.
José Escolar produced the most dangerous morning of the fiesta: four horn gorings, one bull turning back toward the corrals at the start of the route, and a 2:44 run on a packed Saturday. The ranch’s debut behavior in 2015 would be repeated with greater consequence in 2016.
Miura closed in 2 minutes and 5 seconds, the fastest encierro in the modern timing record. Zero horn gorings. At midnight, Pobre de Mí closed San Fermín 2015 in the Plaza del Castillo.
San Fermín 2015, Answered
How many runners were gored in San Fermín 2015?
Ten runners were gored by horn across the eight encierros. Seven of those ten gorings came in just two runs: Jandilla on July 7 (three gored) and José Escolar on July 11 (four gored). Four other mornings produced zero horn gorings, and the closing Miura run on July 14, the fastest in modern history, was one of them.
Which ganaderia ran in each encierro in 2015?
Jandilla on July 7, Del Tajo y la Reina on July 8, Victorino del Río on July 9, Fuente Ymbro on July 10, José Escolar on July 11, Conde de la Maza on July 12, Garcigrande on July 13, and Miura on July 14.
What was the fastest run of the 2015 encierros?
Miura on July 14 in 2 minutes and 5 seconds, the fastest encierro in the modern timing record, a mark that had not been broken as of 2026. The second-fastest run of the 2015 fiesta was Garcigrande on July 13 at 2 minutes and 12 seconds.
Was anyone killed in San Fermín 2015?
No. The last death in the Pamplona encierro was Daniel Jimeno Romero on July 10, 2009. The 2015 fiesta added no name to the list of sixteen runners who have died in the encierro across its modern history.
Planning your own run?
2015 is in the record. For what came next, see San Fermín 2016, or start at the beginning of the archive at San Fermín by Year.