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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider De los Santos hopes to duplicate success next year

De los Santos hopes to duplicate success next year

Published Dec 28, 2020 10:03 pm
james de los santos
Former national team member James De Los Santos records his entry for the semifinal round in the e-kata male seniors category of the Athletes E-Tournament, where he won against Angel Sanchez of Bolivia. (Photo from James De Los Santos)

As physical competition remains uncertain for karate next year because of the COVD-19 pandemic, world e-kata No. 1 player James De los Santos said he is focused on competing in online meets as he tries to collect more gold medals in different international tournaments.

De los Santos has won a total of 36 gold medals from various online tournaments, including 35 from World Series meets sanctioned by the World Karate Federation (WKF) since April.

“We still don’t know when this COVID-19 pandemic will be over. But what I can say is I will still continue to train and compete. Karate is a never-ending process for me because it is a way of life,” said De los Santos.

“I’m very grateful that I was able to find the opportunity of competing virtually and making 2020 a great year for me.”

Last week, he won three tournaments to cap his 2020 campaign as he ruled the Katana Inter-Continental Super League Final, the E-Karate Grand Winner and the Golden League Karate eTournament Series 4.

Because of that, he has improved his world ranking points to 17,645 but its is expected to move up since the points from the Katana IC League will be added for the year-end final ranking.

The 30-year-old De los Santos moved up to the world ranking and finally claimed the top spot last October, relegating Eduardo Garcia of Portugal to second spot after nearly six months at No. 1 in the WKF e-kata.

The former national team member he was just focused on competing and winning gold medals for the country.

“I never thought of becoming the world No. 1 in virtual kata, even if I did set a goal for it. I just focused on training and becoming better in the later competitions, and then it happened,” said De los Santos.

“Hard work, patience, dedication, and faith have always been the key to success in anything you do. It’s always hard in the beginning, but you really have to persevere through that.”

The first triumph of De los Santos in an online tournament was in the Palestine Open – an event that was not sanctioned by the WKF but counts in his gold medal haul.

The following month De los Santos won the Korokotta Cup, and in July, tasted his first back-to-back championships with victories in the Balkan Open and Series 1 of the Athletes E-Tournament.

In August, he dominated the E-Karate Games 1, the 2nd Dutch Open and the E-Champions Trophy World Series 1, and by September, he started to move up the rankings with wins in the Miyamoto Musashi-Five Rings 1, the SportsData E-Tournament World Series 4, the Mitad Del Mundo Hatamotokai, the Tokaido 10 Maribor Open, Venice Cup 1 and the Okinawa World Series 1.

In October, he won the 1st Euro Grand Prix, E-Karate Games 2, Golden League Karate Series 2, Katana IC Karate League 3, Pune Open India and the E-Champions Trophy 2.

The wins kept on coming as De los Santos claimed gold medals in the Okinawa World Series 2, Nox Dojo Markham City Open, 2nd Miyamoto Musashi Five Rings, Athletes e-Tournament Series 2, Golden League Series 3, SportsData E-Tournament World Series 5, Katana IC Karate League 4, 2nd Euro Grand Prix, Venice Cup 3, E-Karate Games 3 and the Rome International Endas Karate Cup.

This month, he also won the E-Champions Trophy 3, Okinawa World Series 3, the 3rd Dutch Open and the Athletes e-Tournament Series 3.

“I’m more of wanting to compete with myself to get better… what a journey,” he said. “My first gold, the Palestine International Karate Cup, is not in the list, since it wasn’t a SportData ranked tournament.”

“But I still count it among my gold medals.”

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