From Noel O’Reilly in Sydney

27/10/00: David Malone has won gold in the pool after finishing in a dead heat in the 100m Backstroke with Germany’s Holger Kommig. After finishing in a time of 1:09.9 seconds, both swimmers shared the podium, while Travis Mohr of the United States took bronze.

Malone, the current world record holder, set a new paralympic record along with Kommig for both to take gold medals. The Dubliner’s next event in the pool comes tomorrow when he lines up in the 50m Freestyle.

Earlier, Mairead Berry capped a stunning Paralympic campaign with a silver medal in the 50m freestyle. Berry’s third medal, she already had one silver and a gold to her credit, came in a thrilling duel with Vicki Broadribb of Great Britain.

Berry, still elated from her gold medal winning performance in yesterday’s 100m freestyle, began the race well and with 25 metres to go was fractionally ahead of Broadribb. The Coolock swimmer chooses to swim the freestyle events using the backstroke, a discipline from which she can gain greater speed than the crawl.

Broadribb swam the crawl, and in the finish proved slightly too quick, breaking the world record she had earlier set in this morning’s heats, her time of 1 minute, 15.46 seconds, nearly two seconds faster than Berry. It should have been much closer but Berry collided with the ropes five metres from the finish.

Berry’s time (1:17.14) was also inside the old world record, setting a new personal best.

"Without the bang into the ropes five metres from the end I think I would have won," was Berry’s verdict of the race. "But I’ve three medals now and a world record so I can’t complain."

"She came within a finger touch of another gold," beamed her coach, Leo Green afterwards. "But a super swim, great race. She’s had a wonderful Games, she goes home with three medals. Let’s hope she’ll survive the homecoming."

Sara Carracelas, who enjoyed a wonderful battle with Berry over the last three days, came home third.