Tanni Grey-Thompson wrote another chapter into the history books yesterday, then waved goodbye to the Paralympics for good.

The Redcar-based Welsh woman won an amazing fourth gold medal as Britain finished a clear second in the medal table at the Games in Sydney.

After destroying a high-class field of wheelchair athletes to complete her targeted quartet of golds and repeat the feat she first achieved in Barcelona eight years ago, Grey-Thompson rode off the track to confirm her intention to call it a day after the Manchester Commonwealth Games two years from now.

The Cardiff-born athlete, who earlier in the week pocketed gold in the 100, 200 and 800 metres, was in devastating form as she attacked the field from lane six in the T53 classification of the women's 400m.

By the 200m mark it was a case of Tanni first, daylight second as the 31-year-old veteran of Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta won in a time of 58.74 seconds.

In second place was Sweden's Madeleine Nordlund, with Cheri Blauwet of the United States taking bronze.

But it was all about Grey-Thompson as she added the ninth Paralympics gold medal of her career to her sock drawer.

''I keep them in the drawer with my socks and undies,'' said Grey-Thompson after the race, admitting she had been disappointed when she found out the lane draw.

''I wasn't very happy to get lane six so, basically, all I could do was get my head down and push a fast first 200.

''I felt comfortable during the race and knew I had it won from a long way out.

''A combination of me pushing well and the two Americans not doing so gave me the race.''

Grey-Thompson, who rode in a demonstration wheelchair race at the Olympics, had mixed feelings that the Games are drawing to a close and that her involvement has now ended.

''Yes, I feel sad that it's over,'' she admitted. ''I said while warming up that it's a shame I have to race.

"Part of me wants to go home and part of me will miss the camaraderie of the village and my friends here.

''I am looking forward to going back to my own house and my own bed and even cooking my own food. But I will be quite sad because we've had a ball in the house in the athletes' village.''

However, she had no doubts about her plans both long-term and short-term: ''I'll do the Commonwealth Games in two years and that will be that. But first I'm going to pig out on ice-cream for a couple of days,'' she revealed.

''We've been on a strict diet while competing so now I'm going to enjoy myself and it will be nice to pig out.''

There is also another objective ahead. ''My husband Ian is also a wheelchair athlete and I have yet to beat him. I am getting closer but to beat him over any distance would be great.''

Scotland's own golden girl, Caroline Innes, took silver behind County Durham's Hazel Robson in the T36 classification of the women's 100 metres and also announced her retirement from the track.

Hat-trick-seeking Innes - she took the 200 metres and 400 metres earlier in the week - could not match Robson's speed out of the blocks and was always playing catch-up as the Houghton-le-Spring athlete came home in a season's best 15.73 seconds.

''That's it, I've had enough,'' Innes remarked after congratulating her rival. ''I want to get a proper job.''

She admitted she was ''disappointed'' at her failure to achieve the three-timer.

''I'm a wee bit disappointed but it went to the best person on the day. To be honest I didn't start very well because I didn't have the adrenalin on the warm-up track that I had earlier in the week.''

Robson was delighted with the victory, which made amends for her disqualification in the 200 metres for changing lanes.

''I'm so happy,'' she said. ''I've never trained with Caroline in Britain but I have raced against her in the Cerebral Palsy Games.''

Britain's swimmers were in world record-breaking form in landing three golds.

Vicki Broadribb, Andrew Lindsay and James Crisp all produced new world bests, the former in the S2 classification 50 metres freestyle and Lindsay and Crisp in the S7 classification and S9 classification respectively of the 100m backstroke.

After his performance Crisp said: ''This is my number one event, the one I've trained for all year. The time was great.

''This morning in the heats I took it easy and saved my energy for tonight and it paid off.''

This was Broadribb's first Paralympic gold after landing bronze in Atlanta.

''To come back and win gold after four years is a fantastic feeling,'' said the City Of Birmingham star.

''I'd done 1 min 18 secs in training so I knew I was capable of breaking the world record.''

For Lindsay the success saw the realisation of a dream after he missed out on gold by just nine hundredths of a second in Atlanta.

''This is the one I've always wanted,'' he admitted.

At Horsley Park Wrexham's Nicola Tustain produced Britain's second equestrian gold of the games with victory in the Grade II Mixed Individual Freestyle competition.

Riding Questionnaire, Tustain rode a near perfect ride to achieve a score of 77.45 per cent.

''I'm so very pleased,'' she grinned. ''I felt confident because during training the horse needed to be right on for each key.

"In the test when the music changed I was in the right place and the horse changed at the right time."