National Team member James delos Santos: Cebuano at heart

Cebuano James delos Santos in action during the karatedo individual kata event at the SM Seaside City Cebu. CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

ONCE a Cebuano, always a Cebuano.

This seems to be the case of James delos Santos, who has been a member of the Philippine Karatedo team for a decade now since he was drafted back in 2008.

Delos Santos is competing in his sixth Philippine National Games (PNG) and bagged his sixth gold medal in the men’s individual kata yesterday at the SM Seaside City.

But this time, more than being a member of the national team, Delos Santos is opting to represent his hometown Cebu City.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) actually urged members of the national teams to register under their local government units. Some, however, still opted to play under the national team banner.

But not the 28-year-old Delos Santos.

“I will always be a Cebuano at heart,” he said, despite having spent the previous years mostly in Manila or out of the country either training or competing in international karatedo competitions.

Interestingly, karatedo is not Delos Santos’ first sport. He grew up being a varsity football player of the Cebu International School in his elementary years and Paref Springdale from Grade 7 to first-year high school.

Although at that time, he was also made to study karate by his parents.

“I hated it at the start but I was a victim of bullying at school and my uncle suggested to my dad to let me try out karate. My dad has a friend who knows karate so I got into it,” said Delos Santos, who added that he even lost in his first three tournaments when he was 14 years old.

He never took karatedo seriously until the 2005 Philippine-hosted Southeast Asian Games, wherein he saw the national team compete at the Mandaue Sports Complex.

“During the 2005 Southeast Asian Games which was held here, my first instructor, Benjamin Balmori, told my dad to let me skip school and watch the competition. That was when I saw the national team, what they do, how they compete for the Philippines and I got inspired and decided not to quit anymore.”

After that, Delos Santos also decided to focus on karatedo with the help of Balmori, Max Takay and Albert Fernandez.

Ironically, Delos Santos won his first ever karatedo match in 2005 before the SEA Games at the time when he wanted to badly quit.

Having represented the country several times already, including thrice in the SEA Games, and once in the Asian Games, Delos Santos said the most memorable tournament for him is the International Shotokan Karate Federation world competition which is held every four years and wherein he won back-to-back in 2012 and 2016.

Delos Santos is looking forward to his second Asian Games stint this August. He now has high hopes with the national karatedo team, especially as it is already getting full support from PSC chairman William ‘Butch’ Ramirez and commissioner Ramon Fernandez.

With PKF undergoing a major change in administration, Delos Santos hopes that athletes will now be prioritized.

“I just really hoped that in the coming years, athletes will get what they deserved because sometimes athletes sacrificed their studies and work just to represent the country.”