‘Bunbury Bullet’ Alex Saffy seals place for Paris Paralympics with strong Australian Swimming Trials showing

A strong showing at last week’s Australian Swimming Trials has sealed Bunbury swimmer Alex Saffy a place on the Paralympic team for the Games in Paris later this year. The “Bunbury Bullet” finished second in the 100m butterfly multi-class final with a time of 57.5sec last Tuesday, falling just six hundredths of a second short of the pre-listed time which would have guaranteed his qualification. But he was named as part of the 30-strong squad to head to Paris announced on Saturday night, meaning he will go to his first Paralympics after missing out on Tokyo in 2021 in heartbreaking fashion as he awaited his international classification to be confirmed. Paralympic qualification for the first time is the latest milestone in the burgeoning career of the 18-year-old, who is a two-time Para Swimming World Championships bronze medallist who won silver in the men’s 100m butterfly S10 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Saffy is the third-youngest member of the squad, which will look to better their tally of 33 medals won in Tokyo, including eight golds. The trials also saw Saffy take part in the final of the 100m freestyle, where he finished seventh with a time of 54.87, while coming sixth in his heat in the 200m medley with a time of 2min. 21.44sec. The South West has supplied two of WA’s four swimmers across the Olympic and Paralympic teams, with Australind’s Kyle Lee securing his place for the 10km marathon swimming event earlier this year. Lee also took part in the trials, with his best display coming in the 1500m freestyle final in which he finished second with a time of 15:08.72. He also featured in the finals of the 800m freestyle (fifth), 400m medley (sixth) and 200m butterfly (seventh). The Paralympic swimming team will assemble in France for a pre-event camp in early August before events begin on August 29.