BY WAYLON GALVEZ
Buoyed by his recent win, veteran online campaigner James de los Santos is eyeing to become the No. 1 ranked e-kata athlete in the world as he intends to take part in several top-tier tournaments this year, including Tuesday’s Athlete’s E-Tournament.
Delos Santos has jumped to No. 3 in the world after winning his third gold medal in the Balkan Open eTournament last Sunday.
“Aiming for No. 1? Yes I am aiming for that,” said the 30-year-old De los Santos in a message to TEMPO.
“If you want to become the best, you can’t be contented. You have to really keep working hard. It won’t be easy of course. But being No. 2 or lower is not enough for me,” he added.
In 13 online tournaments since the virus outbreak in March, De los Santos now has logged 2565.00 points in the E-Kata Male Seniors division against the 2570 of No. 2 Leonardo Birra of Italy.
Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia leads by a huge margin with 5155.00.
Aside from the Balkan Open eTournament, where he edged out South Africa’s Silvio Cerone-Biagioni, he also dominated the Palestine International Karate Cup last April and the Korokotta Cup last June.
De los Santos also earned ranking points with silver medals in the Adidas Karate World Open Series E-Tournament last month, and SportData E-Tournament World Series last May as well as bronze in the First Dutch Open last June.
