The last 17 Beijing 2008 Paralympic aquatic gold medals were awarded on Day 9 of the Swimming competition on Monday, September 15. As expected, more world records tumbled and gala performances were seen at the National Aquatics Center.
In the Men's 50m Backstroke - S1, Christos Tampaxis of Greece won the first gold of the evening in 1:23.15.
Dmitry Kokarev of Russia won his third gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games in the Men's 50m Backstroke - S2 in a world record time of 1:37.17.
An unexpected win occurred in the Women's 50m Backstroke - S2. Ganna Ielisavetska of Ukraine, an S1 swimmer who competed in this event, entered the competition in ninth place in heats with the time of 1:42.30, but managed to claim gold in the final and break the S1 world record in 1:13.64. Sara Carracelas of Spain broke the world record in class S2 in 1:16.33 and finished third.
Defending champion Du Jianping of China was the gold medalist in the Men's 50m Backstroke - S3, also breaking the world record in 44.31 seconds.
Andre Brasil of Brazil pocketed his fourth gold in the Games in the Men's 400m Freestyle - S10, setting a Paralympic record of 4:05.84.
In the Women's 400m Freestyle - S10, Katarzyna Pawlik of Poland took gold and set a world record in 4:33.15.
Yip Pin Xiu of Singapore won the first gold medal for Singapore at Beijing 2008, swimming the Women's 50m Backstroke - S3 final in 58.75s, 0.83 seconds under her world record set in the heats.
David Smetanine of France swam 37.89s the Men's 50m Freestyle - S4 to claim his second gold in the competition.
In the Women's 50m Freestyle - S4, Nely Miranda of Mexico took gold and also set a new world record of 46.27s.
Dmytro Kryzhanovskyy of Ukraine reached the top of the podium in the Men's 50m Freestyle - S5, claiming gold in 33.00s.
Maria Teresa Perales of Spain will leave the Games with three golds, one silver and one bronze after finishing first the Women's 50m Freestyle - S5 in a world record time of 35.88s.
Xu Qing of China claimed gold and set a world record in the Men's 50m Freestyle - S6 in 29.78s.
In the Women's 50m Freestyle - S6, Mirjam de Koning-Peper of the Netherlands won gold in a world record time of 35.60s, totaling two golds and two silvers won in the Games.
Oleksii Fedyna of Ukraine claimed gold in the Men's 50m Freestyle - S13, setting a world record in 23.75s. Defending champion Andrey Strokin of Russia touched for bronze in 24.55s.
The Women's 50m Freestyle - S13 saw a tight contest with Kelley Becherer of the United States winning the gold in 27.85 seconds.
Two exciting relays wrapped up the Swimming competition. The Australian team defended their title, claiming gold in the Men's 4x100m Medley - 34pts with a time of 4:11.90, improving by 10.19 seconds their own world record. In the Men's 4x50m Medley - 20pts, China claimed gold in a world record time of 2:33.15.
(BOCOG September 15, 2008)