Braydon and Sophia shine at British Schools Judo Championships

Braydon attends East Sussex College (Hastings campus) and Sophia Robus attends Rye College and they were competing for their schools at the championships.

Braydon and Sophia are both autistic, besides other learning difficulties, and compete in judo, under adaptive judo. They have competed abroad for Great British Judo with great results.

In Sheffield they competed for their schools, Braydon winning all but one of his fights and achieving silver for East Sussex College. He also gained 10 points towards his 1st Dan grade (black belt).

Sophia fought and won her fights, achieving gold for Rye College. She was presented with the Sam Haycock British Schools Championship Adaptive Player of the Year 2026.

This was awarded for her development in judo over the past year and for how she helps others to learn the sport – this was a great achievement for Sophia.

Braydon and Sophia compete abroad for Great Britain Adaptive Judo, Braydon has been selected to represent at European Judo Union (EJU) competitions, Sophia is part of the adaptive squad in her development to become a selected member of the team and represent her country.

They are proving that despite their difficulties they can achieve at a very high level in sport.

They have several competitions abroad coming up: April - EJU Get together in Belgium; August - International Judo Federation, Grand Slam in Switzerland (this is the first time adaptive is being presented at a Grand Slam); September - EJU Get Together in Poland; November - EJU European Adapted Open in Serbia, and EJU Get Together in Holland; December - EJU Get Together in France.

There is no national funding, and they have to self fund. There is a gofundme page to try to cover some of Braydon’s costs for these competitions. The link to his page is https://gofund.me/51f85e348

If any company is interested in sponsoring Braydon and / or Sophia, please email [email protected]