ZAGREB, August 6, 2018 - Josip Čačija is the winner of the 303rd edition of the Sinj Alka lancing tournament, held on Sunday in the southern Croatian town of Sinj, scoring eight points in three runs.
Sunday's spectacle in Sinj attracted several thousand people, including senior state officials, local government leaders, church dignitaries, foreign diplomats, and public figures.
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, the patron of the tournament, presented the winner with a sabre and a gold ring with the Croatian coat of arms and his attendant with a yatagan Ottoman knife and a silver ring.
At the start of the race, Alka Duke Boško Ramljak thanked all in attendance, particularly President Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković for their support to this traditional annual event.
The Sinj Alka tournament commemorates a victory achieved by 700 Croatian defenders of Sinj, about 30 kilometres inland from the southern coastal city of Split, against 60,000 Ottoman soldiers under Serasker Mehmed Pasha Ćelić on August 14, 1715.
The final of this three-day competition is held on the first Sunday in August. The event features period-clad horsemen riding at full gallop and aiming their lances at an iron ring, called the alka, which is suspended from a rope above the race track.
The Sinj Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.
