PHOTOS: 305th Sinjska Alka tournament held in Sinj 

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

ZAGREB, Aug 9 (Hina) – The 305th Sinjska Alka tournament was held in the Croatian town Sinj on Sunday with 17 participants competing.

This year’s winner with 7 ‘punats’ was Ivo Zorica (37). It was Zorica’s first Alkar but the second in the family.

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

In his keynote speech, Alka duke Bosko Ramljak welcomed President Zoran Milanovic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, thanking them for their speeches and message of reconciliation at the recent Operation Storm anniversary, notably for the decoration of the Croatian Defence Council.

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

“Our Croatia has become a new, better state and society. That’s how true winners act and speak. Congratulations and thank you for that,” Ramljak told the prime minister.

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

This year’s tournament is taking place with coronavirus protection measures, which is why only 2,000 spectators are watching instead of the usual 10,000.

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

(Photo: Ured predsjednika Republike Hrvatske / Dario Andrišek)

The annual event 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 on August 14, 1715. The Sinjska Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO’s world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.