The leaders claimed nine gold medals, to pip the host nation by a single title, and owe much of their success to two-time Paralympic champion Gabriel Araújo.

The 20-year-old's five wins was more than any other athlete at the Bella Italia EFA Village Pool.

The three-time world champion triumphed in the men's 50-metres and 100m freestyle, 150m medley, 50m backstroke, and 50m butterfly multiclass events.

In the latter he set a time of 55.49sec to beat his own S2 classification world record by 0.10sec.

Araújo's compatriots Gabriel Bandeia and Cecilia de Araujo also collected gold medals.

Bandeira prevailed in the men's S14 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly while de Araujo was victorious in the women's S8 50m and 100m freestyle finals.

Triple Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist starred for the Italians as she won two of the team's eight golds by dominating the breaststroke and backstroke sprint races in the women's S5 class.

Paralympic champion Carlota Gilli won the women's SM13 200m medley, the same event where she got her second gold medal at Tokyo 2020.

Another Paralympic gold medallist, Giulia Terzi won the women's S7 50m butterfly for Italy.

Over the four days of competition, several new world records were set with all of them coming in the morning heats.

Italy's Paralympic champion Simone Barlaam beat his own benchmark in the men's S9 50m butterfly by clocking 26.05 before setting a new 200m freestyle best of 1min 58.34sec in the class.

Czech Republic's David Kratochvil also broke two records, in the men's S11 50m and 200m backstroke, with respective times of 31.58 and 2:28.24.

The Netherlands' Chantalle Zijderveld broke the women's 200m breaststroke SB9 world record in 2:45.07.

The United States' Christie Raleigh-Crossley also made history by clocking in after 32.01 in the women's S9 100m backstroke, sealing her country's only gold medal at the event.

The Para Swimming World Series is set to return this week with British city Sheffield due to host the event from March 16 to 19.