Frano Ivkovic won the 304th edition of the Sinjska Alka lancing tournament, held in the southern Croatian town of Sinj on Sunday.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who attended the final day of the three-day tournament, began her address by presenting the Charter of the Republic of Croatia to the Vitesko alkarsko drustvo Sinj (The Sinjska Alka Knights’ Society).

According to a press release issued by the Office of the President, Grabar-Kitarovic said that she was pleased to once again attend the celebration of the Sinjska Alka Knights’ Tournament, which coincided with the 24th anniversary of the military and police operation “Storm”.

“Although these two events are two hundred and eighty years apart, the same spirit unites them: the patriotism of the Croatian people and the bravery of the Croatian soldiers,” she was quoted as saying.

“Although the battle of Sinj in 1715 was not the Croatian nation’s first or last fight for survival and freedom, the recollection of it through the Alka tournament summarizes all our ethical values and spiritual virtues. These can be described by the statement that our first President Franjo Tudjman frequently made: the Croatian people always readily responded to the sacred duty of defending the homeland with faith in God’s help and in the intercession of Our Lady proudly referred to here as Our Lady of Sinj”, the president noted.

The Sinjska 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 Celic on August 14, 1715.

The final of this three-day competition is held on the first Sunday in August.

The Sinjska Alka tournament was inscribed on UNESCO’s world intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.