It took five rounds for world No. 1 James De los Santos to secure his eighth gold medal as he ruled the second leg of the Sportsdata e-Tournament World Series Saturday night.
De los Santos defeated Andrei Gabriel Nedelcu of Romania in the final round, 24.3.24, for his second gold in Sportsdata, the biggest tournament in e-kata in terms of points earned.
The 30-year-old former national team member, however, had to go through four rounds of tough competitions as 24 participants were placed in the round of 32 of this tournament sanctioned by the World Karate Federation (WKF).
In every round, De los Santos had to submit new videos, something he is used to now as a veteran of online competitions, or since he joined last April when events were not allowed physically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am used to it. I’ve had to do five katas (video performances) in actual tournaments,” said De los Santos in a message exchange with Manila Bulletin Sunday.
“Usually when there are many players in a category, you would have to prepare five katas.”
In the round of 32, De los Santos defeated William Tran of Sweden 25.4-24.3, downed Markus Hecht of Germany 24.5-23.2 in the round of 16, edged Norway’s Cornelius Johnsen 24.5-23.4 in the quarterfinal, and dominated world No. 4 Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa 24.9-24.1 in the semifinal.
Last January 31, De los Santos won against Cerone-Biagioni in the first leg of the SportData for his first gold medal this year.
In 2020, he captured a total of 36 gold medals; including 35 in the Sportsdata sanctioned eTournament. He also bagged two of the five legs of the SportData, which gives the biggest points of 1450 – far from 405 in most events.
“I’m really happy winning my eighth gold in the biggest virtual kata event, especially the fact that I won it while watching and receiving my 2020 Gawad Lasalyano award online from my alma mater De La Salle University,” said De los Santos.
“This victory will add more points to the eKata world rankings since the amount (points) is nearly four times.”