James delos Santos

Orencio James Virgil De Los Santos (born February 7, 1990) is a Filipino karate practitioner who competes in kata events. He has competed in the Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games.

He follows the shotokan style of karate and also participated in e-kata tournaments, or kata competitions held online since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of October 2020, he was the top-ranked competitor under the e-kata individual male seniors category in the e-kata world rankings.

Career Early years Karate was not De los Santos' first sport. He played football for Cebu International School's team in his elementary years, and for Paref Springdale's team from Grade 7 until his first year in high school. He reluctantly took up karate, after he was convinced by his parents due to him being bullied at school.

De los Santos was drafted into the Philippine national team sanctioned by the Philippine Karate Federation in 2008 and went on to compete in the Southeast Asian Games and in the Asian Games.

He has represented the Philippines in men's kata at the Asian Games in two occasions; in 2014 and 2018.

Delos Santos has also competed in the International Shotokan Karate Federation World Shoto Cup where he won in 2012 and 2016. However he became involved in a controversy with KPI which led to his exclusion from the Philippine national team for the 2019 Southeast Asian Games after he alleged irregularities within the KPI. De los Santos underwent training in Japan where he learned shotokan kata, but when he returned to training in Manila with KPI and he had a disagreement with the local coaches. He felt that the coaches were not receptive to what he learned in his training in Japan. KPI President Richard Lim said that delos Santos did not pass the national team standards of KPI's local coaches and its foreign head coach for "many reasons". He started competing in e-kata tournaments in March 2020, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, karate tournaments could only be held virtually. He went on to win tournaments which resulted in him becoming the top-ranked karateka in the e-kata world rankings under the e-kata individual male seniors category by October 2020. In 2020, he won a total of 36 gold medals in e-kata tournaments. The following year, he surpassed this feat winning his 37th gold medal by November 2021.

Coaching career As of 2020, Delos Santos serves as a mentor to karateka from the Maharlika Karatedo Kai of the Philippines International (MKKPI).