James De Los Santos successfully repeated as the champion of the Euro Grand Prix after taking down Switzerland’s Matias Moreno Dormont in the finals with results coming on Wednesday (Manila time).
The world no. 1 e-kata karateka edged out the Swiss foe, 24.84-24.62, in the final to bag his 21st gold of the current year and hiked his golden streak to 62 going back to September of last year.
De Los Santos once again went through with Unsu, while Moreno Dormont took the mat with Suparinpei. In the end, it is the Filpino’s mastery of the form that fuelled him to take a second straight win of the said tournament based in the Czech Republic.
The two-time ISKF champion earlier dominated his pool with a huge 25.4 final score on 17.78 off technical score and 7.62 off athletic score to get into the gold medal match. USA’s Alfredo Bustamante and Germany’s Roland Hager completed the pool with 24.86 and 22.14, respectively.
The same tournament was the one that catapulted De Los Santos to his current position at the top of e-kata world rankings.
His student in the Maharlika Karatedo Kai of the Philippines, Inc. Fatima A-Isha Hamsain joined the victory train again.
The teenage karateka bagged the female U16 gold medal after a 24.14-23.66 win over Czech Eliska Pokorna.
