Virtual karate champ reels in gold by a hair

FORMER national karateka Orencio James “OJ” de los Santos reeled in the gold medal by a hair’s breadth against his rival from Portugal to rule the online Athletes E-Tournament Kata Individual Male Seniors Division on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old de Los Santos scored 25 points against Eduardo Garcia’s 24.9 points. Applying an alternative kata (form) in his performance finally yielded a positive result after losing twice in the finals against his Portuguese opponent.

“Whenever I face Portugal, it’s always in the final showdown. This is the third time this happened. I was unlucky at the first two,” said de los Santos to The Manila Times in an online interview about the two silver medals he had to settle for in the first two face-offs.

“But I guess the third time is the charm. I used a different kata against him, and I won it,” he added. “I’m really grateful to my coach in Japan, Masa Saito, and to my parents for guiding me in the finals. It really paid off this time.”

Since the Luzon-wide lockdown in March, de los Santos has already harvested one bronze, two silver and four gold medals.

A six-time Philippine National Games karate champion, he is now No. 2 in the world among virtual kata practitioners.

Next, de los Santos has his sights set on a higher goal: redemption. On August 17, he hopes to win back the top award that was forfeited from his fingers for some scoring slipup at the Adidas Karate World Open.

In virtual tourney number three, perhaps the third time will, indeed, be the charm as he again aims to prove that he is worth his weight in gold.