It was the first time the 36-year-old had won the competition. Sixteen lancers competed for the title as they were watched by a large crowd of local residents and tourists, as well as senior state officials, including President Ivo Josipovic, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic, and Deputy Speakers of Parliament Josip Leko, Nenad Stazic and Tomislav Culjak.

Also attending was the Turkish Ambassador in Croatia, Burak Ozugergin, who said he was pleased to be present at this year's contest.

"The past is the past. We are very close nowadays. Today I am not here because of war and the army, but because of culture. I am pleased to be here," the ambassador told reporters when asked how he felt in Sinj given that the Turkish army was defeated here in 1715.

The announcement of the attendance of Turkey's ambassador at the tournament received the loudest applause from the crowd. It was the first time in 300 years that a Turkish envoy had visited Sinj.

President Ivo Josipovic told the press that the visit by Ambassador Ozugergin showed that Croatia and Turkey had good relations.

The Alka is a tournament in which lance-wielding horsemen, riding at full gallop, try to hit an iron ring, called the alka, which is suspended from a rope above the race track. The competition is held on the first Sunday in August in memory of a victory by local inhabitants against the Ottoman Turks in 1715. The tournament is believed to have started in the second half of the 18th century.