MANILA – Hard work has paid off for Filipino karateka James De Los Santos after officially reaching No. 1 in SportData e-Kata rankings on Thursday.
De Los Santos now has a total of 8,950 points after taking his 14th and 15th golds at the 1st Euro Grand Prix and e-Karate Games second edition earlier in the week.
The twin victories handed the 30-year-old De Los Santos his sixth consecutive title since the previous month, when he bagged gold in the Mitad Del Mundo Hatamotokai E-Tournament Ranked Event.
“I proudly raise this [Philippine] flag in triumph,” said De Los Santos.
“However, the journey isn’t over. My new goal is to maintain the No. 1 spot throughout the year. This is a much bigger challenge, as there will be other e-Kata players who want the spot as well. But this will keep me grinding and motivated,” he added.
De Los Santos also recalled his struggles when he first competed in a virtual kata tournament last April where he was down by nearly 3000 points to the No. 1 ranked karateka.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow that’s a big gap. How am I ever going to reach that?’ I was discouraged at first, but my kata coach Masa Saito reminded me to take it one tournament at a time,” De Los Santos said.
Saito, for his part, said he was glad with De Los Santos’ latest achievement as he knew the latter’s hardship to reach the top.
“I’m really glad. We proved nothing is impossible. The path so far isn’t always easy. But we never give up and we climbed up to the top,” Saito said. “I am so happy that I’m sharing this moment with this amazing karateka James. I’m grateful for the support we had from our family and friends. I’m so lucky to coach such a talented player.”/PN
