Seventeen lance-carrying horsemen competed in this year's tournament, and the spectacle was seen by several thousand people, including senior state officials, local government leaders, church dignitaries, foreign diplomats, and public figures.
President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, 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 flintlock pistol and a silver ring. The winner was also awarded a prize of 40,000 kuna (5,200 euros).under whose auspices the three-day event was held in that town in the hinterland of Split.
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 Serasker Mehmed Pasha Celic 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 Sinjska Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO's world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.