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Zakynthos repeats last year’s success, with representation from the team Anversa Japasseri.
Zakynthos has now won the two last consecutive competitions in a row. This year’s 19th European Knight’s Jousting contest, set in one of the most beautiful villages in Italy, Sulmona, was the highlight for our Giostra team.
As last year’s winners they were challenged and it wasn’t easy for them to keep their reign. Points on the scoreboard by the jockey who was representing them was ahead and at the end of the challenges, Zakynthos won!
Zakynthos in a gesture of thanks, donated their prize to the sestiere of Porta Japasseri, led by Captain Antonio Cinque.
During the course of the competitions, concerns for the knight, from the village of Santa Maria della Tomba, Alberto Liverani, who fell from his horse during the second challenge against Borgo Pacentrano. Fortunately, no injuries occurred to the jockey nor the horse.
The European event opened with a procession of all teams, dressed in historical costume. The procession which takes place every summer which leads to the main piazza of Sulmona. The piazza transforms into a Medieval-style arena, and immediately you feel as though you are taking part in event that once was many centuries ago. Galloping horses enter the decorated piazza, and noble knights representing different neighbourhoods and cities challenge each other in a series of jousts. Sulmona has revived this old tradition in the mid 1990’s. It has now become an annual festival, drawing thousands of visitors during the last weekend of July.
