Paris La Défense Arena went football stadium on Saturday night as the French para swimmers Alex and Kylian Portal won silver and bronze respectively in the men's 400m freestyle.
That the S13 world record holder Ihar Boki claimed the spoils to add the prize to his golds in the 100m butterfly and the 100m backstroke seemed irrelevant to the 13,000 partisans around the pool.
Alex Portal led for most of the race for swimmers with visual impairments. Boki went ahead of the 22-year-old Frenchman just before the turn for 350m and the 30-year-old Belarusian surged clear in the final 50m to take the course in three minutes, 58.37 seconds and rack up a 19th gold medal over four Paralympic Games.
Portal was nearly two seconds behind the legend. His 17-year-old brother pipped Kyrylow Garashchenko to the bronze to the delight of the flag-waving French fans.
Challenge
"I said to myself: 'This is my moment. In front of the Paris crowd, I'm obliged to do the 50m of my life.' said Kylian Portal.
"And I think that's what I did. I managed to get this bronze medal."
Kylian added: "Each time I win a medal, I have the feeling that Alex is prouder for me than he is for himself when he wins."
Their father, Frédéric, was simply delighted.
"We would never have believed that the two of them would be on the same podium," he told RFI. "It was magical."
On Friday, Alex Portal claimed bronze in the 100m backstroke and silver - behind Boki - on Thursday in the 100m butterfly.
"Only Alex or Kylian on the podium would have been tough," added Frédéric Portal; "But I'm extremely proud. Before the race, the most important thing for me was that they were not disappointed at the end."
Reward
It was an otherwise barren third night of competition for French swimmers. However, their British rivals excelled winning three of the night's 15 finals.
Stephen Clegg started the ParalympicsGB gold rush in the men's 100m backstroke S12.
The 28-year-old finished in a world record time of 59.02 seconds.
William Ellard won the S14 men's 200m freestyle also with a world best of one minute, 51.30 seconds. Nicholas Bennett from Canada was second and Jack Ireland from Australia claimed the bronze.
Three years after claiming bronze in the S10 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Paralympics, Alice Tai won gold over the same distance in the S8 class at the Paris Games.
Tai, 25, completed her race in one minute, 09.06 seconds. Viktoriia Ishchiulova was some six seconds behind in second and Mira Jeanne Maack from Germany was third.
The United States picked up two golds and Gabriel Geraldo dos Santos Araujo won his second gold of the Games for Brazil.
On Thursday the 22-year-old won the men's 100m S2 backstroke. On Saturday night, he claimed the 50m S2 backstroke in 50.93 seconds.
