The number one spot is within reach for James De Los Santos.
The seasoned karateka moved closer to taking the top position in the rankings after bagging yet another gold, taking down Domont Matias Moreno of Switzerland, 25.26-24.6, in the finals of the Okinawa E-Tournament World Series #1, Friday morning (Manila time).
“I’m just really happy with my latest gold. The number 1 spot is just really near. I’m almost there,” the 2017 SEA Games bronze medalist said.
His strong performance of the form Unsu yet again put De Los Santos at the top scoring technical marks that went as high as 9 and athletic marks of up to 8.8 on one referee.
Moreno, who withdrew from the Venice Cup semis due to health reasons, came up strong this time with Ohan Dai, to challenge the Filipino but came up short of his seventh gold of the series.
De Los Santos advanced to the final after asserting his mastery of Nejc Strenisa of Slovenia, 25.8-24.72, in the semifinals with the Gojushiho Dai.
The 30-year-old earlier scraped past USA’s Alfredo Bustamante, 24.3-24, in the first round, and then defeated Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa, 24.92-23.98 in the following phase.
With current top-ranked karateka Eduardo Garcia of Portugal not competing, De Los Santos is expected to close the gap even further in the rankings.
Joining the multi-medaled karateka at the podium are Julia Ian Marcos and Fatima A-Isha Hamsain.
Marcos topped the female U21 category, along with a silver in the seniors, while Hamsain took the silver in the female U15.
“What made me happier is seeing these two girls from MKKPI win their respective categories. I’m glad to have coached them throughout this tourney,” he expressed.
