James de los Santos used the unsu technique to win another online karatedo tournament yesterday.
The 30-year-old de los Santos upstaged Sternisa Nejc of Luxembourg, 25.9-23.4 in the individual male seniors finals of the E-Karate Games 2020.
This allowed the Cebu-based De los Santos’ continue his streak of victories to five.
“I’m really happy winning my fifth gold. But that doesn’t stop there,” said de los Santos.
The goal of making it to the no. 1 spot in the world e-kata rankings is in the mind of de los Santos.
To reach the championship round, de los Santos outpointed Tani Hossein of Iran, 25.5-24.3, in the individual male seniors semifinals.
“This tournament will add points to the rankings, which is why this victory is important to me,” said de los Santos.
To refine his video presentation, de los Santos sought the assistance of his coach Masa Saito, who is in Japan.
And it was Saito who instructed de los Santos to take the unsu form, which is the shito ryu version of Unsu.
Unsu is the most advanced kata found in the Shotokan, and it is known as cloud hands.
And it was the delicate hand movements of Unsu which wowed the judges.
“As someone coming from a samurai country, we won’t celebrate until we win the world ranking no 1. This is a path,” said Saito.
De los Santos reached the semis after beating British rival James Parfitt, 25.1-20.4,
Last month, de los Santos earned his fourth gold medal after he emerged victorious over Garcia, 25-24.9, in the online Athletes’ E-Tournament’s Kata Individual Male Seniors Division. Peter Atencio
Two months ago, the Cebu-based de los Santos snared his third gold medal in the online Balkan Open karatedo etournament.
Here, he outpointed Silvio Cerrone-Biagioni, 25.3-24.5, in the finals of the individual kata men’s division.