De Los Santos captures 12th gold in online kata

 

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Praise God! Won my 12th Gold! 🥇 I just concluded the Venice Cup #2! The results: Round of 16: Defeated Canada 🇨🇦 Quarterfinals: Defeated Luxembourg 🇱🇺 Semifinals: Switzerland 🇨🇭 couldn’t compete due to illness I faced Slovenia 🇸🇮 in the final round. I ended up snagging the gold medal. 🥇 I’m not far from the no. 1 spot. Just a little more! Thank you God for keeping me healthy and safe. Thank you to my sponsor @kaffeacoffee. Thank you to Kazuo Saito sensei and Nozomi Yamanaka for your teachings in kata. Thank you to my conditioning coach @jfuts. Thank you to my sempai and MKKPI chief instructor Gierby Lacorte and tito Adonis Colonia for letting me use your Honbu dojo as the virtual tournament venue. Thank you to those who supported me. To my kata coach, @masa090x: We’re almost there! The journey continues! 👊🏻 🔥 🇵🇭 #karate #kata #pride #honor #glory #tournament #competition #firstplace #gold #champion #hardwork #dedication #nevergiveup #streak

A post shared by James De los Santos (@james_de_los_santos) on Sep 29, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

MANILA – James De Los Santos of the Philippines scored another gold medal after ruling the online Venice Cup.

The former Southeast Asian Games gold medalist defeated Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia, 25.2-23.7, in the final to clinch his 12th gold medal for the year.

The result brings De Los Santos closer to the top spot in the world rankings especially that the current number one online karateka right now, Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia, exited early into the competition.

Garcia dropped a slim 23.7-23.9 decision in the Round of 16 to Hugh Connolly of Ireland, who lost to Sternisa in the quarterfinals by a small margin as well.

De Los Santos, on the other hand, had a free ride to the final after his supposed semifinal opponent, Matias Moreno of Switzerland, begged off due to an illness.

De Los Santos earlier beat Canada’s Scott Taylor and Luxembourg’s Kevin Petry.