Filipino karateka James delos Santos stayed on track of his goal as he kicked off the year with a gold in the 2021 SportData eTournament World Series #1 on Saturday, January 30.

Delos Santos defeated virtual kata world No. 4 Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa, 25.3-24.5, in the finals of the men’s kata event.

“There will be more tournaments ahead, and this is a great motivator to start with!” said Delos Santos, who considers the world series the “most prestigious” virtual kata tournament.

The country’s top karateka entered the year as the virtual kata world No. 1 after he capped off 2020 with 36 international gold medals and collected 15,710 ranking points since the start of the online tournaments last March.

Now, Delos Santos remains on top with 18,020 points since securing the world No. 1 spot last October, overtaking rival Eduardo Garcia of Portugal.

Former world No. 1 Garcia slipped to No. 3 (8,890 points) in the rankings as Switzerland’s Matias Moreno Domont took the No. 2 spot with 9,495 points.

Delos Santos earned his world ranking after joining virtual kata tournaments, which kicked off in March 2020. – Rappler.com