POWERLIFTER Micky Yule has set his sights on qualifying for next year’s Tokyo Paralympics.

Team GB headed to the Fazza 2019 World Para Powerlifting World Cup this week looking to stake a claim for the top competition.

Wallyford athlete Yule needs to secure a place in the top eight over the next four competitions to secure a place at the Paralympic Games.

Speaking to Courier Sport before heading for Dubai, he said: “I’m looking forward to it.

“I have got four competitions to qualify for Tokyo.

“It is a massive competition and I cannot believe it has come around so fast.

“I feel like I have just got off the plane from Rio (Paralympics 2016) and the Gold Coast (Commonwealth Games 2018).

“Now, it is here again and they come up and catch up with you so quick.

“You think you have got longer than you have but I have got the competition now. Then it is Hungary in April, Kazakhstan in July and then the final competition is at the start of 2020.

“You have got to be in the top eight in the world – only the top eight go to Tokyo.

“I’m sitting sixth just now but I want to come back from Dubai with fifth at least.

“I need that breathing space and don’t want to be sitting in eighth.”

Former soldier Yule, who is competing in the men’s 80kg category, lost both legs after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) while on patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2010.

The 40-year-old former army staff sergeant finished sixth in Rio and has previously suffered injuries ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and the Gold Coast last year.

However, he was pleased to say he was in great shape ahead of flying out to Dubai.

Looking ahead to Tokyo, he said: “If you can go there with no injuries or niggles you are a lucky person.

“Everybody has to adapt their training to get over a niggle.

“It is not something I want to dwell on with excuses but I have been feeling great and had a good run since the New Year.”