Lights out on 'greatest Games'

PARALYMPICS CLOSING CEREMONY: THE FOURTH and final extravaganza of light and spectacle in Beijing's Bird's Nest last night marked the official end of a hugely successful Paralympics and of six weeks of elite sports in the Chinese capital, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing.

A 91,000 sellout crowd watched as the ceremonial flame was extinguished and the event formally handed over to London, which will host the next Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.

Some 4,000 athletes from 147 regions and countries competed in the Paralympics, which have done much for people with disabilities in China.

In sporting terms, the Games have been extremely successful for Team Ireland, marred only by the disqualification of the seven-a-side soccer player Derek Malone, who was deemed "not disabled enough" to compete.

Derry's Jason Smyth set world records and won gold medals in the 100 metres and 200 metres for visually impaired athletes. Gay Shelly took bronze in the individual boccia, Michael McKillop won 800-metre gold, also breaking a record, and Darragh McDonald took 400-metre freestyle (S6) silver.

The Irish team's target was four medals and 12 finalists; the final tally was five medals, including three gold, and 22 finalists.

That the team included plenty of young talent was hugely encouraging.

"We're hoping the numbers of people wanting to compete in the Paralympics will start flooding in now," said the Paralympics Council of Ireland general secretary, Liam Harbison.

China, having topped the gold-medal table in the Olympics, did the same in the Paralympics, winning 89 gold and 211 overall. Britain were second with 42 gold and 102 overall. The US, which has been criticised for not doing enough to boost sports for people with disabilities, were third with 36 and 99.

Among the stars of the Paralympics was the South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit, who had also competed in the Olympics; she won five Paralympic gold medals.

Her compatriot Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee who runs on carbon-fibre prosthetics, won gold at 100, 200 and 400 metres and hopes to run against able-bodied athletes in next year's World championships in Berlin, as well as the London Games.

Philip Craven, president of the International Paralympic Committee, said he had experienced a series of emotional moments in the past few weeks which had affected him deeply.

"These games have been great games . . . everybody realises that," he said. "These are the greatest Paralympic Games ever. The people made the Great Wall accessible - and the whole point of the Great Wall in history was that it was inaccessible," he joked.

China was criticised during the Olympics and the Paralympics for cracking down on dissent, blocking freedom of the Internet and the press, and being overly security-conscious, but the world leaves Beijing with a positive impression overall.

The 100,000 volunteers who displayed a friendly face to the world during the six weeks of sporting activities here also took their leave of the Games.

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, shuffled back into the Bird's Nest for a symbolic handover from his Beijing counterpart, Guo Jinlong, which involved a very English kind of tea ceremony at which a charlady did the honours.

The number of athletes is expected to increase to 4,200 in London, which is where the first Paralympics were held as the Stoke Mandeville games - organised by a German neurologist , Ludwig Guttman - in 1946 to help with the healing process for soldiers wounded in the second World War.

Beijing residents were making the most of the last days free of serious pollution and heavy traffic - odd-even number plate restrictions will be lifted on Saturday, adding two million cars to the roads, and power plants and steel factories will start up again, bringing back the smog.