An aspiring bull rider fromj Brazil suffered a fatal heart attack after he was flung off the animal.
Eighteen-year-old Thiago Castilho died after the tragic incident as he competed in a rodeo in Ribeirão Preto, a city in the southeast of the South American country, Daily Mail reported.
Just eight seconds into the routine on 22 September, Mr Castilho was thrown off the bull to the shock of dozens of spectators. Mr Castilho, who dreamed of becoming a professional bull rider and joining competitions in the US, seemingly hit his neck with the fence separating the crowd and the stage.
The teenager was rushed to the hospital to get medical help but suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on 23 September.
His death is being treated as accidental by local authorities investigating the incident.
According to local news site G1, Mr Castilho had just recently begun to join larger competitions after becoming a bull riding aficionado at a young age.
He began riding horses at age 11 and by the time he was 16, he rode a bull for the first time, Mr Castilho’s father, Jean Carlos Castilho, told the outlet.
“Unfortunately, that’s what rodeo is all about. It’s a dangerous sport. I always said to him, ‘My son, stop it’. [And he would always say,] ‘No, father, that’s what I want. If I die one day, I’m going to die happy, I’m going to die riding,” the grieving father told G1.
