Triple medal finish in the pool

The swimming programme finished on the best possible note with three medals including gold to Wellington’s Mary Fisher on the final night of competition at the London Paralympics.

Tonight Fisher grabbed gold and a world record the 200m individual medley, Sophie Pascoe earned her sixth medal of the Games with a silver in the 100m breaststroke with Auckland’s Daniel Sharp adding a silver in the same discipline.

It brought the curtain down on a sensational campaign in the pool that realised 12 medals – five gold, six silver and one bronze.

The campaign finished on a golden note for Mary who set a world record on her way to claiming the gold medal in the 200m individual medley.

She had qualified second fastest in 2:51.90 in the morning but produced a stunning swim in the final to clock 2:46.91, beating home top qualifier Daniela Schulte (GER) by more than two seconds.

On the way Mary set a world record for the 50m backstroke in the lead-off leg of the medley, in 35.12.

The Wellington student swims at the Capital club under coach Luke Clark, and completed her programme with four medals – a gold, two silver and a bronze.

Daniel Sharp grabbed his first medal on the last day of competition, producing an Oceania record in the men’s 100m breaststroke.

The partially sighted swimmer from West Auckland clocked 1:06.72 in the final to follow home winner Oleksii Fedyna (UKR) who won in 1:04.30 but the kiwi edged out Russian Roman Dubovoy by 0.3s for the silver. The Russian had been the second fastest qualifier ahead of Sharp, who made a superb start to lead at the 50m turn and held off the challengers.

Daniel, 24, swims out of the West Auckland Aquatics club under his long-time coach Simon Mayne.

Fittingly the remarkable Sophie Pascoe rounded out her 2012 Paralympic campaign with another silver medal to add to her three golds and two silvers.

The 19 year old produced a career best 1:19.28 to set an Oceania record and qualify second fastest for the final. She then returned to reduce that time to 1:18.30, pipped for gold by Khrystyna Yurchenko (UKR) in 1:17.81.

"I’m incredibly wrapped to finish the games off like that, my ultimate goal was to get on the podium and that’s what I’ve done. I’ve taken two second off my entry time. I’m finished and had a great campaign and a successful one," said Pascoe.

Sophie believes her gold on opening night was a key to the games for her.

“My 200 IM definitely was a great start to the meet, and I didn’t expect the time I saw up there on the board, and I guess I’ll be reflecting on that on the way home on the plane, just how well I’ve done.”

Sophie is definitely not hanging up her swim suit, and is already keen to target Rio.

“I’m still hungry for more, I love the competition, I love the feeling of what people pay to feel and that’s the adrenaline rush and I want to have that again.