OJ delos Santos bags 11th karate gold
MANILA, Philippines — James “OJ” delos Santos collected his 11th gold medal in the Tokaido Maribor Open E-Tournament Wednesday that helped him close the gap between him and World No. 1 Eduardo Garcia of Portugal.
The 30-year-old delos Santos continued his dominance of Matias Moreno Domont of Switzerland with an emphatic 5-0 win to claim his 11th triumph while slowly but surely climbing up the world ranking ladder.
Trailing Garcia by a mile, 3,870-7,075 a few weeks back, the two-time SEA Games bronze medalist has crawled his way back and has now sliced it to just 7,105-8,125 in the recent rankings.
“I just need a few more tournaments to reach No. 1, the grind must go on,” said delos Santos.
The feat was made sweeter after delos Santos’ student, Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain bested Jelizaveta Vasiljeva of Latvia, 4-1, to reign supreme in the U15 women’s kata division.
Julia Ian Marcos settled for a bronze in the U21 women’s kata.
“What made me happier was also a few students started competing in kata and I’m very glad to have assisted them,” said delos Santos.
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