No. 1 ranking in the bag for karateka OJ delos Santos

MANILA, Philippines – Anytime now, the Philippines’ James “OJ” delos Santos will become the highest ranked online karateka in the world.

Delos Santos is expected to supplant Portugal’s Eduardo Garcia as the World No. 1 in the men’s individual kata division after scooping up a couple of gold medals in two separate competitions Monday.

The 30-year-old two-time Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist edged South Africa’s Silvio Cerone-Biagioni, 24.6-24.3, in ruling the 1st Euro Grand Prix E-Tournament and then bested Brazil’s Murilo Alves, 24.3-23.3, in topping the e-Karate Games 2020.

It came less than a week after he reigned supreme in the Okinawa E-Tournament Series to hike his total to 15 mints.

And these feats should catapult delos Santos to the top after trailing by just less than 500 points Garcia in the world rankings last week.

“Technically, I’m No. 1. But the points haven’t been added yet,” said delos Santos.

Delos Santos also continued to produce champions out of her students Fatima Hamsain and Julia Marcos.

Hamsain ruled the female U16 shotokan individual kata section while Marcos settled with a silver in the U21 class.

“I’m proud to see the performances of my students improve in every tournament,” said delos Santos.