James De los Santos nets 19th eKata gold medal

MANILA, Philippines—James De Los Santos’ momentum in eKata competitions is far from stopping.

The world’s No.1 eKata player notched his 19th gold medal after topping the eChampions Trophy World Series #2 and besting South Africa’s Silvio Cerone-Biagioni, the no.3 in the world, 25.2-23.7 in the finals.

De Los Santos’ performance was also under pressure as he had less than an hour to complete his routine at Maharlika Karatedo Kai of the Philippines International’s dojo in Taguig as super typhoon Rolly was set for Manila on Sunday.

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19th Gold, earned through pressure! 🥇 I just concluded the eChampions Trophy World Series #2! Results: Semifinals: Defeated USA 🇺🇸 My final match was against South Africa 🇿🇦. On the day of the finals, my student from MKKPI, Fatima Hamsain, and I arrived in the tournament venue around 11:20am. Then the mall announced that they will be closing at 12nn for everyone’s safety. So we basically had around 30 mins to finish everything. Despite the time pressure, we succeeded. But also because of the possibility of a brownout due to the typhoon, we rushed back home to upload our videos. And fortunately again, we succeeded. Even with these circumstances, I was able to win the finals and bring home my 19th gold. 🥇 I was a lot happier seeing my MKKPI students bring home medals from their respective categories: Fatima Hamsain: 🥇 in U15 female e-kumite, 🥈 in U15 female e-kata Karen Colonia: 🥇 in U18 female e-kata Julia Marcos: 🥈 in female seniors e-kata Thank you God for keeping us healthy and safe. Thank you to my sponsor Kaffea. Thank you to my kata coach, Masa Saito, and especially Kazuo Saito sensei and Nozomi Yamanaka for your teachings. Thank you to my parents for the guidance. Thank you to my senpai and MKKPI chief instructor Gierby Lacorte and to my tito Adonis Colonia for letting us use the honbu dojo as the virtual tournament venue. Thank you to those who supported us. #BetterNotBitter 🔝 🔥 🇵🇭 #karate #kata #sport #martialarts #tournament #competition #champion #gold #firstplace #hardwork #motivation #grind #philippines

A post shared by James De los Santos (@james_de_los_santos) on Nov 2, 2020 at 5:12pm PST

“Despite the time pressure, we succeeded. But also because of the possibility of a brownout due to the typhoon, we rushed back home to upload our videos. And fortunately again, we succeeded,” wrote De Los Santos on his Facebook post.

De Los Santos also expressed his joy in his students’ medal haul in the same tournament.

Fatima Hamsain took the gold in the under-15 female e-kumite and the silver in the under-15 female e-kata.

Christina Colonia won the gold medal in the under-18 female e-kata and Julia Ian Marcos settled for the silver piece in the female seniors e-kata.