GB lead Paralympic swimming charge

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Final day highlights from Reykjavik

By Marc Woods Former Paralympic swimming world champion

Great Britain's swimmers proved themselves dominant at the European Paralympic Swimming Championships this week.

They topped the medal table in Iceland, with Ukraine finishing second and Spain battling it out with Russia for third.

And the GB team will now be keen to test themselves against the rest of the world at the World Short Course Championships in Rio de Janeiro in December.

Like any successful team, British Swimming will be looking to move things on, and there is room for improvement

In terms of medals, the goals set out for the team by UK Sport and their coaching staff have been met.

But the more important - more subtle - goals achieved were the bonding of the team, the introduction of swimmers from development programmes to the senior squad, and the smooth reintroduction of swimmers with intellectual disabilities into the team, as they make their way back into the Paralympic family.

It seems almost unfair to pick out star performers when there have been so many medals won, and records broken, by British swimmers.

Eleanor Simmonds winning her five gold medals was certainly impressive, especially in races where she was not necessarily expected to be the first Brit to touch the wall.

Heather Frederiksen has been prolific, winning half a dozen golds as well as a bronze in the 100m backstroke and a silver on the final day in the 200m individual medley.

Report - Paralympic swimming day six

Dan Pepper, reintroduced into the Paralympic family in style, won three gold medals and beat team-mate Ben Proctor into the silver medal position each time.

As with any major event, there are swimmers who return home to Britain disappointed.

Some of the backstrokers struggled to cope with the unusual design of the ceiling in the aquatic centre.

With the beams set diagonally across the pool, many misjudged where they were in the lane, missed turns, caught the lane ropes and ultimately lost medals.

Like any successful team, British Swimming will be looking to move things on, and there is room for improvement within certain classifications.

GB need to find and develop athletes with visual impairments, an area which the Ukraine, second in the medal table, excel at.

Standards in the sport are constantly improving and there were 24 new world records set in Iceland.

But so far, GB swimmers are more than responding to the challenge of an ever more competitive sporting landscape - they are leading the charge.

The short-course Worlds in Rio later this year, and the long-course Worlds in Eindhoven next August, are the crucial next stepping stones for the team as they move closer to London 2012.

Some need to learn from their mistakes; others have to look for new ways to improve. No one can afford to rest on their laurels.

Marc Woods was speaking to BBC Sport's Tony Garrett