
Make it 12 straight gold medals for James De los Santos.
The world No. 1 e-kata male senior’s athlete proved his dominance again as he topped the Kamikaze E-Tournament Neuhofen/Austria to close out the month of March with another title.
De los Santos claimed the gold medal by beating Domont Matias Moreno of Switzerland 25-24.5 in the final. He advanced to the final with a 24.8-24.1 win over American Alfredo Bustamante in the semifinal.
“I’m very happy to have won my 12th gold medal for this year,” said De los Santos when contacted by Manila Bulletin Tuesday.
“I keep checking on updates in the eKata world rankings, and I am delighted to add more points to be further away from the competition.”
Just recently, the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) cited De los Santos following his memorable campaign in 2020 where he won 36 gold medals in online tournaments, which propelled him to the No. 1 spot of the world ranking of the World Karate Federation (WKF).
De los Santos, a former member of the national team, bagged two bronze medals in two separate Southeast Asian Games. When the COVID-19 pandemic happened a year ago that forced governments to lockdown, he turned to online competitions to continue with the competitions.
Of the 12 gold medals he won so far, he already ruled the first two legs of the prestigious Sportsdata e-Tournament World Series, which gives the winner more than 1,000 points per leg.