Bunbury teen Alex Saffy claims first swimming medal at Para World Championships on eve of Commonwealth Games

Bunbury teenager Alex Saffy has taken home his first international swimming medal in his overseas debut. Swimming in the S10 category in the 100m butterfly final at the recent Para World Swimming Championships in Portugal, Saffy claimed a bronze medal with a time of 58.20. Saffy has dyskinetic cerebral palsy and used to swim able bodied, but as the symptoms progressed he was regularly disqualified and encouraged to take up Para Swimming. The 16-year-old said the whole experience at his first international swim meet had been a blur. “It is amazing, I didn’t really plan on getting a medal, so to walk away with that was unreal to be honest,” he said. “It was pretty cool, I don’t remember much, it was a bit of a blur, but it was just amazing to represent Australia.” The West Australian Institute of Sport swimmer qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics but could not be selected because he had not been internationally classified. Now that the Bunbury Bullet has stamped his class on the world stage, he is eyeing next month’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. “I am back in Canberra now, in about two weeks we go to France for a training camp, and then we go to the UK for the Games,” he said. “I am just going to get back into the grind and then see what I can do there. “I am just going for experience, I am not going to get my hopes up about anything.” The teen sensation said he could not believe that he would be competing at one of the most high profile swimming events in the world just over a month after his international debut. “It is pretty unreal, I have been dreaming of this since I was a kid and everything is falling into place at the moment,” he said. “I am just going to live in the moment and enjoy the experience.”