大象传媒

This was definitely the best Paralympic swimming meet I have ever been to in terms of quality of the races.

There were some great individual gold medals - three from people who have been here before, , and and they came back and did a good job.

And three from first timers , and of course , plus the relay as well.

Ellie has been one of the faces of the Games.

She has been very mature in how she has prepared and performed and focussed on what she was doing. She raced really smart, which is impressive for a 13-year-old and she was up against people much older than her and with more experience than her.

She had some tough races where she didn't medal but the ones that counted she did really well in. She could go on for a long time but the main thing is that she has to enjoy it. You have to enjoy the training and enjoy wanting to improve all the time.

The gold medal came in fantastic races but there were also a lot of good races which didn't secure gold medals, particularly for the likes of Louise Watkin who had some excellent performances in a tough category against a world-class opponent in .

While she didn't beat Natalie, she never let that stop her from doing a great job. She has worked hard on her finishes and some of those finishes won her a silver and three bronze medals.

Then there were some newcomers who swam lifetime bests and you have to do that in the heat to advance to finals.

However, it was disappointing to see us fourth in the medal table.

Yes, we hit the 41-medal target that was set by UK Sport but in terms of competing against the rest of the world, I think head coach Lars Humer will be aware that other countries have moved further forward. However, that disappointment is a challenge to take forward.

We knew the USA would be tough as they have been building a young team for a few years and of course .

We had some races won by a long way and that was partly due to the winners being exceptional but we didn't have many races where the last person was ridiculously behind everyone else.

The field has tightened up and generally people had to swim fast heats to make it through, which makes for a good competition. The crowds were there for the finals but some of the busiest sessions were heats which were pleasing to see.

Lars will already have a plan for the next four years but that plan will be finalised in the next month or so.

There are probably some swimmers who were here who will retire and others who will know that they will need to step on if they are to do as well as they have done here.

Nobody should be under the illusion that they can do the same performances as they did here in four years time because it won't be good enough. The level will go up again.

The time that won a gold medal here will probably only be good enough to make a final in London. That's how it steps on after each Games.

There are lots of kids competing at the national championships and hopefully they will have been inspired by what they have seen in the swimming events here.

They mustn't underestimate how much hard work has been done to those who got here. They should work harder and work smarter and do the right things to get the best chance.

It is going to be tougher to make the team in 2012. Twenty of the 35-strong team won medals and there aren't many who didn't finish in the top six, which was the minimum requirement for getting here

They have got to guesstimate what the times are going to be in 2012 and work towards that and being the fastest when it comes to then.

Marc Woods was speaking to 大象传媒 Sport's Elizabeth Hudson.