Saturday in the ruedos: epic triumphs for Castella and José Rojo, unlucky Thomas Joubert.

Thomas Joubert n’a pas eu de chance au sorteo pour son second paseo en Espagne. Midi Libre

Le Biterrois a triomphé à Trujillo en coupant quatre oreilles en sortant en triomphe avec Manzanares et José Rojo. Thomas Joubert a touché le moins bon lot pour le second tour de la Copa Chenel à Valdemoro.

Two arenas and two atmospheres for the French this Saturday in Spain. On the Trujillo side, in Extremadura, Sébastien Castella cut a total of four ears from his two toros of Domingo Herrnandez in front of full tendidos. The Biterrois suffered a severe tamponade on his cape which did not prevent him from continuing his two fights and the news was reassuring in the evening despite the pain.

For his part, Clément Albiol's protégé, José Rojo, cut off three ears during his alternative in his city. After suffering a horn blow to the cape against the last toro, he delivered an epic faena to obtain a total of three ears to go out in triumph with José Maria Manzanares who also collected three flags. In the evening, he was transported to Caceres to have an operation even though his state of health did not cause any concern according to his apoderado.

« He is going to have surgery but despite the injury we are very happy. He made a significant effort and showed that he wanted to earn his place in the matador ladder. We hope that businesses will give him a chance after this success » confides Clément Albiol.

A positive experience for Thomas Joubert

On the Valdemoro side, for the Copa Chenel, the arenas displayed the « no hay billetes » for the reopening of the arenas after a fourteen-year break. Thomas Joubert inherited the worst part of bullfighting and showed his personality and demonstrated a flawless attitude during the two fights. More fortunate, his two competitors, delivered beautiful faenas against their opponents Flor de Jara and Angel Luis Peña. Molina and Victor Sanchez cut off an ear from each of their bulls to emerge in triumph.

Even if ears are only one criterion out of five to reach the semi-finals, it seems impossible that Thomas Joubert is one of the two winners of this race. This Copa Chenel will remain a great experience for the Arlesian by performing his first two paseos as a matador in Spain and making himself known to the Iberian public in front of the Spanish cameras.