It was the third time the 29-year-old had won the competition. He also won in 2009 and 2011.

Seventeen lancers are competing for the title as they are watched by a large crowd of local residents, tourists, public figures as well as senior state officials, including President Ivo Josipovic, Parliament Speaker Josip Leko, his deputies Nenad Stazic and Tomislav Culjak, numerous MPs, Deputy Prime Minister Ranko Ostojic and numerous ministers from the Zoran Milanovic cabinet, Split-Makarska Archbishop Marin Barisic, Military Ordinary Juraj Jezerinac and other Church dignitaries, county prefects and mayors of numerous cities including Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic, as well as 12 ambassadors accredited in Croatia.

Croatian President Josipovic, under whose auspices the tournament is held, congratulated Zorica.

The event was also attended by retired General Ante Gotovina who was declared an honorary citizen of Sinj and an honorary member of the Sinj Alka lancing tournament association (VAD).

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.