No slowing down James De los Santos’ medal haul

MANILA, Philippines — Don’t expect Filipino karateka James De los Santos to slow down anytime soon after securing three more gold medals in only a span of two days recently.

In fact, he just added a bronze to his collection on Tuesday just a day after claiming his seventh and eighth gold medals in the 2nd Dutch Open E-Tournament and Miyamoto Musashi – Five Rings E-Tournament.

De los Santos bagged the bronze in the Golden League Karate E-Tournament despite being penalized for “accidentally cutting out the ending bow.”

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“I was in a rush to meet the deadline and I only noticed it after I uploaded my video. No bowing is considered a big foul and the judges caught it,” he told INQUIRER.net Wednesday.

“It’s unfortunate, but I will take this as a lesson and I applaud the judges for being on top of it.”

The 30-year-old De los Santos vowed to not make the same mistake twice and return on top as he aims for the No. 1 ranking in e-kata.

“What happened was an honest mistake and I’ll definitely bounce back.”

Fortunately for him, he doesn’t have to wait that long to redeem himself with the adidas Karate World Open Series #4 already underway where he is currently in the semifinals.

“I still have yet to win gold in this tourney. It’s been an elusive one,” said De los Santos, who is currently the second-ranked e-kata athlete in the world with 4,275 ranking points behind Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia (7,075).