The jubilee, 300th edition of the Alka tournament

The Sinjska Alka tournament commemorates a victory by 700 Croatian defenders of Sinj, about 30 kilometres inland from the southern coastal city of Split, against 60,000 Ottoman soldiers under Mehmed Pasha Celic on August 14, 1715. 

The 31-year-old horseman Frano Ivkovic won the final race of the 300th edition of the Alka tournament in Sinj on Sunday, and at the end of the race which involved a total of 17 participants.

The competition 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 160-metre-long race track. The Sinjska Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.

(Text and Photo: Hina)



 

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