Even Super Typhoon "Rolly" can’t stop World No. 1 James De los Santos from winning his 19th gold medal in online karate.
The Filipino karate sensation scored another dominant win as he defeated Silvio Cerone-Biogioni of South Africa, 25.2-23.7, in the final of e-Champions Trophy World Series #2 as results came out Tuesday.
The 30-year-old De los Santos said he almost failed to submit his video entry because of bad weather.
“This will be a memorable virtual tournament,” said De los Santos. “Fatima (HAmsain) and I were both scheduled to compete in the finals (Monday). We arrived in the MKKPI dojo in Sunshine Plaza (in Taguig City) at 11:20 a.m.”
“Then the mall announced that they would close at 12 noon for everyone’s safety… so we only had around 30 minutes to prepare; we were really pressed for time. But fortunately, we were able to record our performances.”
“But also given that there could be a possible brownout because of the typhoon, we had to rush home to upload our videos. And fortunately again, it was successful. We were against the time and the typhoon, but we succeeded,” he added.
On his way to the final round, De los Santos downed Andredo Bustamante of the USA 24.8-24.3, while Cerone-Biagioni edged Matias Moreno Domont of Switzerland in the other semis pairing 24.1-23.8.
It was the first gold medal for De los Santos for the month of November, where he expects to join in more than 10 online tournaments.
“I was happy to see that I’ve won my 19th gold, despite all this. I’m happy too for my MKKPI students as they have brought home medals from their respective categories (in the same tournament),” he said.
Hamsain won gold in the U-15 e-kumite and silver in e-kata, while Karen Colonia earned a gold in the U-18 e-kata, and Julia Marcos settled with silver in female senior’s e-kata.