De los Santos: King of the world of e-kata
World No. 1 James De los Santos earned his 16th online gold medal as he edged Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa 25.7-23.9 in the final of the Golden League Karate e-Tournament Series 2.
A day after he claimed the No. 1 spot in the e-kata of the World Karate Federation (WKF), the 30-year-old De los Santos proceeded to score a huge victory to highlight his achievement.
“I really never thought that I would catch up, given that I was nearly 3,000 points behind when I become the No. 2 back in August,” De los Santos said as he improved to 8950 points to surpass Eduardo Garcia of Portugal.
“That discouraged me for a while, until my kata coach Masa Saito, as well as my parents told me to be patient and take one tournament at a time. That got me back on my feet. Then nearly three months later, I finally achieved it.”
Garcia is now at second spot with 8575 points, while Cerone-Biogioni (4585) remains at third, followed by Matias Moreno Domont of Switzerland (4455) at fourth and Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia (3980) is at fifth.
On his way to the final of the Golden League Karate e-Tournament Series 2, the former national team member eliminated Domont 25-24 in their quarterfinal match and then downed Murilo Alves of Brazil 25.123.3 in the semifinal.
Early this month, De los Santos ruled the 1st Euro Grand Prix and the 2nd e-Karate Games 2020.
Last month, De los Santos had a sizzling win streak as he won seven gold medals.
It started with the Tokaido Maribor Open eTournament, then the 4th SportData eTournament World Series, the Hatamoto Kai Mitad Del Mundo E-Tournament, E-Champions Trophy World Series, Miyamoto Musashi Five Rings and the 2nd Dutch Open E-Tournament.
He also won the e-Karate Games 2020 and the Athletes E-Tournament last August, the Balkan Open eTournament in July, the Korokotta Cup last June and the Palestine International Karate Cup last April.