The York Vice-Chancellor opened the tournament on Friday with wishes of ‘Good Roses’ to both universities. However, it could not be said that Lancaster had a good Roses at Karate. The Lancaster women’s team failed to turn up for both the Kata and Kumite, earning York two points by default. A similar situation occurred with Men’s Kata, where Lancaster were two players short which again led to a York win.
Perhaps overshadowed by the other Lancaster karate teams’ failure to show up, the Lancaster Men’s Kumite team were defeated by York. The white rose managed to win two out of the three Kumite contests in the tense martial arts display through strong attacks. However, Lancaster competed strongly here and managed to win one of the fights 8-2, with another contest being very close at 3-2. Despite this, York gained another two points, winning the entire event, without actually having to compete in most of it.
