Online karate sensation James de los Santos captured his 24th gold medal, winning against Matias Moreno Domont of Switzerland 24.9-23.7 in the 5th Sportsdata e-Tournament World Series.
It was the second time that the 30-year-old De los Santos ruled the event, which is the biggest e-tournament for kata since it gives more points, as compared to other events.
“I’m happy that this is the second time I’ve won the SportData eTournament,” said De los Santos.
“The amount of ranking points awarded would nearly multiply to that of a regular virtual tournament, which will really widen the gap with me as No. 1 and Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia – the former No. 1 but is now at second spot.”
“But there will be more tournaments to go for the rest of the year, so my journey still continues,” he added.
De los Santos reached the finals after trouncing South African Silvio Cerone-Biogioni 24.4-24.1 in the semifinal round. He earned a bye in the Round of 32 and defeated Andrei Gabriel Nedelcu of Romania 24.6-23.7 in the Round of 16 and Lukas Grimm of Germany 24.4-23.2 in the quarterfinal. (Waylon Galvez)
