Pressed for time, James de los Santos quickly wrapped up his video presentation, and still won his 18th gold medal Saturday in the Pune Open India Karate eTournament.
The 30-year-old de los Santos added this to his collection of titles this year after he blanked Murillo Alves of Brazil, 3-0.
His students Fatima A-Isha Hamsain and Christine Colonia of the Maharlika Karatedo Kai of the Philippines International earlier settled for the bronze medal after bowing to their respective rivals in the 15-under category.
“My student from the MKKPI club, Fatima, and I were really pressed for time. When we arrived at MKKPI dojo, our e-tournament venue, at 11:20 a.m., the mall announced that they will be closing at 12 noon for everyone’s safety from the typhoon,” said de los Santos.
De los Santos and his students had been using the Honbu dojo in Taguig City as their virtual tournament venue.
Earlier, this week, de los Santos picked up his 17th straight gold medal 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.
The newly hailed world no. 1 de los Santos gave credit to Japanese coach Masa Saito asked him to do better with the unsu routine he did during the finals.
In reaching the Pune finals, de los Santos hurdled Alfredo Bustamante, 3-0, in the quarterfinals.
He also had the same score when he won over Matias Domont of Switzerland in the semifinals.