Bunbury teen Alex Saffy waiting on final approval to head to Tokyo with Australian Paralympic team

A young Bunbury athlete looks set to join some of the country’s sporting heroes in Tokyo later this year. Swimmer Alex Saffy has provisionally qualified for the Paralympics for the 100m butterfly and is now just waiting to receive international classification to be eligible for the games. Alex, 15, had been classified as a para athlete for just two months, before swimming a qualifying time at the Olympic trials in Adelaide last week. The Bunbury Catholic College student lives with myoclonic dystonia, which effects his co-ordination and posture. “I am not officially in the team yet because I don’t have the international classification which is needed for para,” he said. “I am provisionally in the team, so I find out soon if I can go to Tokyo. “I am all new to the para stuff, but they said they are pretty optimistic about it, so I should find out in the next week or so.” Alex said his disability did impact on his day-to-day life and it was when it began to impact on his swimming that he sought para classification. “It’s a thing which affects my foot and posture and co-ordination and stuff,” he said. “I lack a bit of coordination and posture, so that fits the S9 criteria, which is what I’m in. “I slouch at my desk, I can struggle to get to my class because I get tired and it affects recovery, so it is harder to recover than for other people. “We applied in the middle of last year and didn’t get any news back, but I kept getting disqualified in my able-bodied events and then we had enough of that so applied again and got the classification.” The teenager is set to join Australia’s Paralympics squad in Queensland next month, before heading to Japan. “I will go to Brisbane and spend two weeks training in Queensland and then I spend two weeks in Cairns with the team,” he said. “We will be in Tokyo for 21/2 weeks and then back in quarantine for two weeks.”