Winning five gold medals in the London 2012 Paralympic pool has left swimmer Oksana Savchenko incredulous.

The 21-year-old Russian set a new world record to claim an astonishing quintet of titles with victory in the 50 meters freestyle on Thursday.

She earlier stormed to gold in the 100 meters backstroke and freestyle, the 400 meters freestyle, and the 200 meters individual medley.

"You think - all right, that's three, but here are five!" she told R-Sport on Saturday. "If I'm honest, I couldn't ever have imagined that at one Paralympics it's possible to win five gold medals. It just seems unrealistic."

Savchenko revealed she had had spats with her coach, who had urged her to trim down her disciplines to just two or three.

"He said: 'What do you mean you intend to swim the 400? You can't swim it.' There were lots of moments like that. And yet it all worked out so well, gold in all five distances. I can't believe it."

Savchenko's haul has helped Russia to third in the medal table with 32 golds, 35 silver and 26 bronze, trailing host Britain by one gold. China is uncatchable in first place with 84 gold, 66 silver and 60 bronze.