The pivoting kick of the unsu jump once again lifted Cebuano bet James de los Santos to two more gold medals in an online kata competition Monday.
The turns of the kick, done in midair at the end of his routine, gave De los Santos first-place honors in the first Euro Grand Prix and the E-Karate Games 2020 for his 15th straight gold medal.
Two female competitors Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain and Julie Marcos, who are schoolmates at Sen. Renato Companero Cayetano Memorial in Taguig City, tagged along with De los Santos and also dominated.
A-Isha Lim Hamsain bagged the gold medal after her 23.2-22.9 triumph over Giselle Van Rensburg of Denmark in the Shotokan under-16 female action of the E-Karate Games 2020.
On the other hand, Marcos got the silver medal after bowing to Keira Sanfft of Australia, 23.4-23.6.
The 30-year-old De los Santos, looking focused and intense in his video presentations, went on to snatch his 14th and 15th gold medals.
De los Santos performed the movements in a very slow and precise manner to first outpoint Murillo Alves of Brazil, 24.3-23.3, in the E-Karate Games 2020 finals.
The same move at the end of his nearly three-minute performance also wowed the judges as De los Santos made a soft landing again to take a 24.6-24.3 win over Silvio Cerrone-Biagioni of South Africa.
This kept the world no. 2-ranked De los Santos on track in his bid to overtake world no. 1 Eduard Garcia of Portugal at the top spot in the individual male seniors’ category.
“I performed Unsu for both tournaments, since they were both final matches on the same day. At that moment, these thoughts of comparison would cross my mind. But I was confident with both,” said De los Santos.
Last week, de los Santos snagged his 13th gold in the first leg of the Okinawa E-Tournament Series kata competitions.