This week, James de los Santos will have a chance to overtake world no. 1 Eduardo Garcia of Portugal.
The multi-titled Cebuano has joined the Golden League E-Kata tournament to seek out his 16th straight gold medal.
The 30-year-old De los Santos is now in the semifinals, after having beaten Matias Domont of Switzerland, 25-24, in their quarterfinal match-up.
“The fire burns brighter,” said De los Santos in his Facebook message to his supporters.
Garcia had 8575 points atthe top spot of the individual male seniors rankings, but not far behind is De los Santos with 8515 points.
With Garcia wielding a 60-point advantage, De los Santos will most likely snatch the no. 1 position if he stretches his run of title wins to 16.
In his last campaign, De los Santos captured first place honors in the first Euro Grand Prix and the E-Karate Games 2020 and collected a total 15 straight gold medals.
He was not alone, as two female competitors in Fatima A-Isha Lim Hamsain and Julie Marcos, who are schoolmates at Sen. Renato Companero Cayetano Memorial in Taguig City were with De los Santos in the meet.
A-Isha Lim Hamsain also snared a gold medal behind a 23.2-22.9 triumph over Giselle Van Rensburg of Denmark in the Shotokan under-16 female action of the E-Karate Games 2020.
Marcos got the silver medal after bowing to Keira Sanfft of Australia, 23.4-23.6.
