Paris 2024 Paralympics | Para-swimming: Alex Portal takes silver in the S13 100m butterfly behind Ihar Boki

The second medal for French Para-swimming! On Thursday evening, after Ugo Didier's Paralympic title, it was Alex Portal's turn to shine in front of a Paris La Défense Arena crowd that was going wild.

Fourth in Tokyo in 2021, the 22-year-old Frenchman beat the odds in the S13 100m butterfly. Second fastest in the heats and author of an exceptional race on Thursday evening, he very nearly toppled one of the greatest legends of Para swimming, Ihar Boki (NPA). With a lead of just 3 hundredths in the 50 metres, the 30-year-old swimmer, who already has 16 Paralympic gold medals to his name ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, had to battle hard to win in 54‘’13, just 25 hundredths better than Alex Portal (54‘’38).

Spain's Enrique Jose Alhambra Mollar, fourth after the halfway mark, finally got the better of Ukraine's Oleksii Virchenko to claim bronze.