De Los Santos & student nab gold medals in international kata tournament

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

 

Filipino prized karateka James De Los Santos is back in the international limelight and added another gold medal to his prestigious collection after reigning supreme at the 2021 Kamikaze e-Tournament Neuhofen/Austrian Kata and Kumite Ranked Event.

De Los Santos racked up his 12th gold medal in just three months to maintain his world no.1 status in the virtual kata rankings.

A familiar face tried to stain De Los Santos’ international record as Swiss rival Matias Moreno Dormont setup another finals clash but failed once again as the Filipino edged him 25-24.5.

De Los Santos’ path to the grand finals did not come as easy as familiar opponent Antonio Bustamante from America gave him a tough semifinals matchup, 24.8-24.1.

Meanwhile, De Los Santos’ prized kata student Fatima A-Isha Hamsain joined his mentor in rejoicing after clinching two gold medals in the same tournament.

Hamsain topped both the under-16 and the under-18 categories and scored an impressive 24.8 in the U-16 and 24.7 in the U-17.

The prized e-kata student used the Gankaku technique in both her grand finals stints against Chibana no Kushanku in the U-16 and Oyadomari no Passai technique in the U-18.