But only after being awarded the gold medal earlier
Former national team campaigner James de los Santos is expected to move up the world ranking for virtual kata after he took the silver medal in the Adidas Karate World Open Series E-Tournament 2020 last Wednesday.
The 30-year-old De los Santos finished behind Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia but not after a glitch in the scoring system that initially gave the Fil-American the gold only to later be awarded the silver.
“How the tournament concluded is questionable; I don’t know why it happened,” said De los Santos in a message to Manila Bulletin. “But what I can do is keep going and there will be more tournaments to come.”
“This is also a big improvement for me. From being a quarterfinalist in the first edition to a silver medalist (temporary gold) is a feat. I will still continue training, and hopefully find more tournaments to compete in. It’s not over yet.”
After he got a bye in the Round of 32, the two-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist defeated Murilo Alvez of Brazil in the Round of 16, and then edged Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia in the quarterfinals.
De los Santos reached the final round with a semifinal victory over South Africa’s Silvio Cerone-Biagioni, but became the recipient of a controversial scoring by one of the referees against Garcia in the finals.
Nevertheless, it was the fifth medal for de los Santos in 11 online tournaments, which included gold medals in the Palestine International Karate Cup last April and the Korokotta Cup last June.
He also had a silver medal in the SportData E-Tournament World Series last May and bronze in the 1st Dutch Open last June.
“I’ve competed so far in 11 tournaments in a span of four months – and brought home five medals so far. On the bright side, I made a big improvement in the Adidas tourney,” he said.
“In the first edition of the Adidas Karate World Open Series, I only reached quarterfinals. But in this second edition, I had the gold for a moment… then ended with silver. I don’t know why this happened.
“But on the bright side, it’s a big improvement from being a quarterfinalist (last month) to silver medalist.”
De los Santos said the silver medal would earn him World Ranking points, and he expects to move up to No. 3.
“I was no. 4. Then recently I’m at no. 5. But after this tournament, they’ll update it (ranking) again since it adds points. With my latest silver win, I might land at No. 3,” De los Santos said.
“For me to compete in this many tournaments in a short amount of time is amazing. Don’t get me wrong; I’ll always treasure my memories in the national team, but in all my 11 years in the team, I competed in a total of 14 tournaments.
“Whereas this year, I competed in 11 tournaments in just a span of four months."