Kadeena Cox led Great Britain's glorious Paralympic team into the Rio 2016 closing ceremony at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday night. 

The flags of all participating countries were brought by 160 athletes and their aides, as Rio bid farewell to the Games. 

Fireworks, music and dancing followed on a typically colourful night in Brazil in front of nearly 80,000 spectators.

ParalympicsGB, fielding 264 athletes in 19 of the 22 sports, finished second on the medal table to China, winning 64 gold medals and 147 in all over 11 days of competition.

There were 119 medallists, 44 of them multi-medallists. Five British females - cyclist Dame Sarah Storey, swimmer Bethany Firth, wheelchair racer Hannah Cockroft and equestrian riders Sophie Christiansen and Natasha Baker - won three gold medals.

Cox won four medals, two of them gold, at her maiden Games, two years after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The 25-year-old from Leeds became the first Briton in 28 years to win medals in two sports at one Games and the first in 32 years to claim gold medals in two sports at the same Paralympics.

Cox won the C4/C5 500 metres time-trial in the velodrome and the T38 400m on the running track. She set world records in both events.

She proved her sceptical coaches wrong and now Cox wants to encourage others to explore what is possible.

'I wasn't disabled in London, but I watched the Paralympics,' Cox said ahead of the ceremony.

'When I was diagnosed with my condition I sat in my hospital bed and decided I wanted to go to Rio. That was what I was going to do. To be here and to have won medals and to do it in the fashion that I've done it is just amazing. 

'When I first set out the journey was just about me and just a girl that wanted to go to the Paralympics. And then it became the journey of wanting to win medals, but not for me, for other people.

'Giving other people someone to look at, someone that can empower them who has overcome setbacks, disabilities, illnesses.

'You can make the most of these things. That's why I wanted to be here and do something different and push the boundaries. Show people what we're able to do, rather than what we're not able to do.

'That's why it's really special. I got the medals, but being able to spread a message is way more important than the medals.

'Yes, we have disabilities, but it's not stopping us from being totally amazing. We can show the world how amazing we are.' 

Britain's medal haul is their third highest in the history of the Paralympic Games, which formally began in 1960 in Rome, having had origins at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire.

Britain won 107 golds at the New York/Stoke Mandeville Games of 1984 and 65 at the 1988 Seoul Paralympics.

It appeared on Saturday's penultimate day that the Seoul tally would be passed, only for the team to fall one short.

The statistics were breathtaking nonetheless, with Britain winning 12 per cent of medals available for a best return since 1968, when Paralympic sport was in a different era.

The 11 gold medal-winning sports - archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, canoeing, equestrian, rowing, swimming, table tennis, triathlon and wheelchair tennis - equals the record held by China from the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Winning medals in 15 sports - powerlifting, sailing, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair fencing the additional four - matches the record the United States set in Athens in 2004. 

British athletes recorded 49 Paralympic records and 27 world records. The eldest and youngest athletes in ParalympicsGB - 67-year-old equestrian rider Anne Dunham and swimmer Abby Kane, 13 - claimed medals.

Five sports - archery, canoeing, cycling, equestrian and rowing - topped their sport-specific medal table.

Chef de mission, Penny Briscoe said: 'This team has not only passed its medal tally, it's rewritten the history books for Paralympic sport in the UK. It's just been an incredible 11 days.'