BY WAYLON GALVEZ
Former national team campaigner James de los Santos is expected to move up in the world ranking for virtual kata after claiming the silver medal in the Adidas Karate World Open Series E-Tournament 2020 held last Wednesday.
The 30-year-old de los Santos finished second behind Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia but not after a scoring glitch.
The Fil-American was initially declared the winner but to his dismay, organizers admitted to making a mistake, thus he slipped to second.
“How the tournament concluded is questionable; I don’t know why it happened,” said de los Santos. “But what I can do is keep going and there will be more tournaments to come.”
“This is also a big improvement for me. From being a quarterfinalist in the first edition to a silver medalist (temporary gold) is a feat. I will still continue training, and hopefully find more tournaments to compete in. It’s not over yet.”
After he got a bye in the Round of 32, the two-time Southeast Asian (SEA) Games bronze medalist defeated Murilo Alvez of Brazil in the Round of 16, before edging Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia in the quarterfinals.
De los Santos reached the final round with a semifinal victory over South Africa’s Silvio Cerone-Biagioni, but after a controversial scoring by one of the referees, he lost to Garcia in the finals.
Nevertheless, it was the fifth medal for de los Santos in 11 online tournaments, which included gold medals in the Palestine International Karate Cup last April and the Korokotta Cup last June.
He also had a silver medal in the SportData E-Tournament World Series last May and bronze in the 1st Dutch Open last June.
