James De los Santos and Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain captured gold medals in their respective categories as results in the 1st Inner Strength Martial Arts International eTournament were posted Thursday.
De los Santos, the world No. 1 e-kata player, won in the male senior’s division following a 25.4-24.6 win against Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia in the final round of the event sanctioned by the Word Karate Federation.
It was the second gold medal for De los Santos after he dominated the prestigious SportData eTournament World Series 1 late last month when he beat No. 4 Silvio Cerone-Biogioni of South Africa.
The 30-year-old De los Santos edged George Phillips of United Kingdom 25-22.4 in the quarterfinal, and prevailed over Domont Matias Moreno of Switzerland 24.7-21 in the semifinal stage.
“I’m really happy that I won my second gold for this year,” said De los Santos, a former national team member who collected two bronze medals in two stints in the Southeast Asian Games.
“The fact that they’ll be giving actual medals for this tournament, I’m excited. However, what made me happier is my student Fatima won gold medals in the U16 and U18 women’s category.”
The 15-year-old Hamsain took the gold medal in the U-18 e-kata female division with a stunning 24-23.5 victory against Marie Zinecker of Germany, and added the U-16 title with a 24.1-23.8 triumph opposite Jelisaveta Vasiljeva of Germany.
“I'm very proud to say that she challenged herself by competing in the older women's kata categories, the U16 and U18 divisions. I'm very proud of her progress so keep it up,” he said.
De los Santos, who finished the previous year as the No. 1 ranked e-kata player in the world, said that he has two events coming, the E-Karate World Series 1 and the Katana Intercontinental League 1.
“I’m submitting my videos for the E-Karate World Series. I think judgment is tomorrow (Friday),” said De los Santos.