By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer Daniel Woolls, Associated Press Writer – 32 mins ago
CACERES, Spain – A 16-year-old Spanish matador set about Saturday to kill six fighting bulls in one afternoon, a dangerous feat usually attempted only by seasoned veterans.
After approximately 50 minutes Jairo Miguel Sanchez Alonso successfully slew his first bull, a black beast weighing 450 kilograms (990 pounds) and a second one, a muscular, fast and agile chocolate-brown animal.
Wearing a sparkling white suit of lights with gold sequins that twinkled in the late afternoon sun the young toreador was greeted by a two-thirds full 5,000-seater bullring.
Minutes before the fight started he and his former bullfighter father hugged in the alley leading to the bullring and cried in an emotional scene.
This type of drama, which pits a debutante young matador against six ferocious bulls, happens every now and then when a bullfighter feels brave enough to risk his life to show his courage. Once a fighter reaches the minimum legal age of 16, it is not considered controversial in Spain.
The crowd was appreciative but not rapturous as he faced the animals while a six-man taurine band played traditional paso doble tunes.
Jairo Miguel was fighting the bulls in his hometown of Caceres, in Spain's southwestern Extremadura region.
The average age for matadors in Spain is 25 to 30 and Jairo Miguel spent around four years fighting in Latin America to escape the strict age limit.
The normal format for a bullfight is three matadors taking on two animals each. Aficionados say it is extremely rare for a matador as young as 16 to fight six, a challenge requiring great physical and mental stamina.
In an interview the night before the big fight, Jairo Miguel said he was nervous but confident in his skills. A tall, slender boy with a baby face and a nice smile, he bears a scar from a ghastly goring that nearly punctured his heart in Mexico in 2007.
He got started at age 6, locking horns with a young cow.
"Ever since I was very small I have had this in my genes," he told The Associated Press. "I have practically grown up with bulls."
Juan Belmonte, a bullfighting critic for Canal Sur television in Seville, said Jairo Miguel is largely untested but a promising matador.
"Imagine a class of first-graders. There is always one that stands out. That is Jairo Miguel," he said.
Belmonte said that of the 800-odd bullfighters active in Spain, just a handful took on six of the 500-600-kilogram (1,100-1,300-pound) beasts at age 16.
One of them was Julian Lopez, who did it in 1998 and is now one of Spain's top bullfighters. He did it in Madrid's storied and very demanding Las Ventas ring, bullfighting's equivalent of Madison Square Garden. He won top honors, being carried out of the ring on fans' shoulders and claiming two trophies — ears from bulls he had just slain.
Jairo Miguel's setting is much less grandiose: a smallish, second-category ring in a preseason charity event to benefit children with autism.
His mother, Celia Alonso, said she chain-smokes in the days leading up to one of her son's fights, cannot sleep even with tranquilizers and would prefer he do anything but this — "football, computers, whatever."
"But he has chosen this and I have to support him," Alonso said. "All I know is what his eyes say when he struts out into the ring."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100206/...eenage_matador
I can't believe this barbarism is STILL going on...:flamemad:
Teenage Spanish matador faces 6 bulls
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