Para swimming: Alex Portal wins silver after bronze
Alex Portal, supported by the Banque Populaire Val de France, won the silver medal in the 200m medley (S13) after garnering his first medal in the 400m freestyle event on Friday.
Bronze is a good beginning…
After his encouraging 4th place in the 100m butterfly event last Wednesday, Alex Portal, supported by the Banque Populaire Val de France, managed to win a very fine bronze medal in the 400m freestyle S13 (class related to visual impairment) on Friday. At the end of a race completed in 4'06"49, the swimmer from Saint-Germain-en-Laye successfully reached the podium in Tokyo: the goal he announced when he came to Japan! He came in third behind a Belarusian swimmer and a Ukrainian. This was already a remarkable performance for a young swimmer competing in his first Paralympic games. But he will do even better in the future!
But silver is a consecration!
On Sunday in the 50m freestyle, Alex Portal came in 6th place in his heat, an unsatisfactory result for such a demanding athlete. Last night, he revealed the strength of his tenacity by qualifying brilliantly for the final of the 200m medley in the S13 class. He had already obtained the 3rd fastest time in the qualifications with a fine 2nd place in his semi-final which he swam in 2'12''05. But he managed to improve his performance yet again and win a magnificent silver medal in the final by finishing 2nd in 2'9''92 behind the omnipresent Belarusian swimmer. He cut two seconds off his time in the final.
This impressive achievement makes him, at 19 years old, one of the major assets of the French Paralympic Team in Paris 2024.
Photo credit: T. Nguyen