World No. 2 James De los Santos hopes to add another gold medal to his collection after he earned a spot in the final of the Golden League Karate e-Tournament Series 2 Thursday.
De los Santos eliminated Domont Matias Moreno of Switzerland in their quarterfinals match, 25-24, and then downed Murilo Alves of Brazil, 25.1-23.3, in the semifinal stage.
The 30-year-old Filipino campaigner is set to face Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa in the final.
“I think I have faced him four times in a final, and I never lost to him in a finals match,” said De los Santos, who has won 15 online tournaments since he started competing in April.
Cerone-Biogioni earned a bye in the quarterfinal and edged American Alfredo Bustamante, 24.1-23.9, in their semifinal duel.
The last time De los Santos defeated Cerone-Biogioni in the finals was last week during the Euro Grand Prix as the former scored a close 24.6-24.3 victory for his 15th gold medal.
The win was part of a two-gold medal haul by the former national team member De los Santos this month as he also ruled 2nd e-Karate Games 2020 by beating Alves in the final 24.3-23.2.
De los Santos is hoping to get the No. 1 spot in the World Karate Federation (WKF) world ranking currently occupied by Eduardo Garcia of Portugal with 8575 points to the latter’s 8515 points.
“There are some tournaments where they take long to add (the points). They didn’t add yet the Okinawa World Series points. I’m still waiting, my coach is also waiting,” De los Santos said.
Aside from the Okinawa World Series, De los Santos also ruled the Venice Cup 2020 early this month.
Last month, he ruled the Tokaido Maribor Open eTournament, 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.