João Fernando, a student of Aerospace Engineering at Técnico and an athlete forSporting Clube de Portugal, shone once again at the National Judo Championships, which took place at the Sports Pavilion of Colégio da Imaculada Conceição, in Cernache. The Técnico student won 1st place in the -81 kg category and was also crowned national absolute champion.

On the weekend of November 20th and 21st, the main event of the national judo calendar took place, the 2021 “Jogos Santa Casa” National Championship, with the participation of 119 athletes. The competition ended with the National Absolute Championship and the National Paralympic Championship (Blind and Low Vision), whicth 18 and 10 Judokas, respectively. João Fernando won the National Absolute Title after defeating his club colleague, Diogo Brites, in the final.

Born in Coimbra, João Fernando began his judo training at ACM Coimbra. He already had several national youth and junior championship titles and some medals in international competitions when he joined Sporting in 2017. At the time, he competed in the -73 kg category. He was part of the team that won the 2018 Judo Champions League and the national championship in 2019. He was individual national champion in his category in 2018 and 2020 and U23 champion in 2018 and 2019.

On July 20, 2019, he won the gold medal at the Junior European Cup, held in Prague.

The bronze medal in the -81 kg category of the 2021 “Jogos Santa Casa” National Senior Championship was also won by another Técnico student, Francisco Costa, also an Aerospace Engineering student and SCP athlete.