De los Santos strikes 8th gold in virtual kata tourneys

JAMES de los Santos was on a roll over the weekend, winning three more virtual gold medals in various online tournaments that strengthened his bid to be No. 1 among virtual kata practitioners.

De los Santos bagged the E-Champions Trophy World Series, the Miyamoto Musashi – Five Rings E-Tournament and the 2nd Dutch Open E-Tournament to earn him a total of eight karate gold medals since the series of lockdowns started in mid-March.

“It’s an amazing feeling that I was able to make a golden sweep this month. But the hard work doesn’t stop there. The journey to the No. 1 spot in the virtual kata world ranking still continues,” de los Santos told The Manila Times in an online interview.

In his latest golden performance, he led with 25.4 points to beat American Alfredo Bustamante’s 24.7 points in the finale of the e-kata individual male senior’s class of the Dutch tournament, sponsored by Hayashi.

Last Sunday, he defeated Domont Matias Romero of Switzerland with 25.7 points against the Swiss karateka’s 24.5 points to strike gold at the E-Champions Trophy World Series event. He also hit the gold mine at the Miyamoto Musashi virtual tourney with a 25.3 vs 24.5 victory over Brazilian Murilo Alves.

De los Santos also mined gold from the Palestine International Karate Cup, the Korokotta Cup, the Balkan Open, the Athletes E-Tournament and the E-Karate Games 2020.

Apart from the eight gold medals, he has two silvers and one bronze, presently placing him at No. 2 in the world with 4275.00 points. He needs to hoard more gold to breathe down the neck of Eduardo Garcia of Portugal, who is No. 1 with 7075.00 points.