Sascha Kindred survives water torture to claim 13th and final medal at Rio 2016 Paralympics

Sascha Kindred says his surprise disqualification in qualifying motivated him to end his Paralympics career on a high.

The 38-year-old, competing at his sixth Games, was disqualified from the morning heats of the SM6 200m individual medley for a lane infringement but later reinstated after an appeal.

Then, in the evening, the veteran swimmer produced a world record time of 2min 38.47sec for his seventh Paralympic gold medal. It is his 13th Paralympic medal won over the past 20 years.

Kindred said: “I didn’t feel like I deserved the disqualification. We appealed and the appeal won. It gave me that extra motivation to finish on a high.

“It was an emotional day, a rollercoaster of a day with what happened this morning.

“I went back to the village and had my lunch. I didn’t hear for about an hour while I was back in the village. It was nerve racking. It wasn’t the best place to be. There was a lot of negativity, but I just tried to stay focused.

“This is my last Paralympic race. I’m not Steve Redgrave — I won’t say ‘kill me if you see me in the pool’ — but I am 99 per cent sure I won’t be in Tokyo in 2020.

“Thirteen is my lucky number. I was born on the 13th, my mum was born on the 13th as well. And seven is a special number for me as well.

“The last four years have been just amazing and this is the perfect ending.”

To cap a stunning night in the swimming pool, Susie Rodgers stunned herself by setting a European record to claim Paralympic S7 50m butterfly gold. Rodgers, who clocked 35.07sec, only took up competitive swimming at 25 but eight years on, she is only getting quicker. “I just can’t believe it, I’m in total shock,” she said. “This goes to show that no matter how old you are, you can still pull things out of the bag.”