October 16 ------ Filipino karateka James de los Santos reached the top spot in the men's online kata world rankings based on his strong showing in recent competition, including the Sportdata e-Tournament World Series. Based on the recent rankings of the E-Kata Male Individual Seniors, de los Santos accumulated 8,950 points, placing him ahead of Portuguese rival Eduardo Garcia (8,575 points).
"After 7 months of competing in so many tournaments on a weekly basis, the hard work has paid off; it is now official. I am the No.1 in the eKata World Ranking," said De los Santos in his Instagram post. The 2-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist has collected medal after medal in successive online tourneys to reach the spot.
"When I hit the no. 2 spot back in August 6, I was behind by nearly 3000 points to no.1. 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," said de los Santos, who picked up his 10th gold medal when he beat Garcia in the SportData final.
But his work is not yet done, De Los Santos said. "My new goal is to maintain the no. 1 spot throughout the year. This is a much bigger challenge, as there will be other eKata players who want the no. 1 spot as well. But this will keep me grinding and motivated," he said.
Source: news.abs-cbn.com/sports
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