Timing was everything as James de los Santos took pains in coming up with a slower-paced performance.
And his efforts paid off as the 30-year-old De los Santos picked up his 17th straight gold medal, this time in the third leg of the Katana Intercontinental League online tournament.
De los Santos said he surprised even himself when he outpointed Juan Achio of Costa Rica, 26.1-25.1 in the finals of the senior male 16-and-above category.
“I’m really happy winning my 17th gold. But what made it really shocking was that I won with a score over 26 using my best kata Unsu,” said De los Santos.
The newly installed world no. 1 kata online athlete said he did watch his Japanese coach Masa Saito ask him to do with the unsu routine he used during the finals, which was to adjust the timing during his transitions.
And it worked as he was able to do well after hurdling Abdellatif Choukri of Morocco, 24.5-23.7, in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, his adjustments allowed him to get past Nejc Sternisa of Slovenia, 25.1-24.1.
“My coach, Masa Saito, wanted me to adjust my timing a bit compared to my previous performances. It was the timing between each technique. I would slow down in between techniques from 0.5 to 1 second in each transition. I had to slow it down a bit,” added De los Santos.
Last week, De los Santos rose to the top of the rankings with a 16th gold medal victory.
De los Santos reached a new milestone in his online career when he took home the individual male senior honors of the Golden League E-Kata tournament.
At that time, De los Santos prevailed over world no. 3 Silvio Cerone-Biagioni of South Africa, 25.7-23.9.