2024 Paris Paralympic Games Moreton Bay coverage: Ricky Betar in the finals

Image above: Ricky Betar in action ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympics. Courtesy Swimming Australia/Delly Carr

Morayfield's Ricky Betar has swum in the men's 100m backstroke final in Paris this morning.

Betar, who qualified in fifth place, finished in sixth in the final behind fellow Aussie Ben Hance, who claimed gold after setting world and Paralympics records in his heat.

Betar's final swim of the games earnt him a personal best, with a time of 1:00.33 - faster than his heat finish of 1:00.51.

Talking to Channel 9 after the event, Betar said he was pleased with his race, but had hoped to do better.

"I was hoping to break the minute mark, but I can't complain," he said.

He said he'd spoken to his mum Nori, who's also in Paris, after the heats and she'd wished him well for the finals.

Asked what he had planned now his Paris campaign has ended, Betar, who earned his first individual Paralympics medal on Thursday - claiming bronze in the men's 200m Individual Medley S14 - hinted some celebrations might be in order.

"I don't know. Who knows," he said.

Paris is Betar's second Paralympics. In Tokyo three years ago, he won a silver medal with Australia’s mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14 team.

In Tokyo he also qualified for the finals in the 200m freestyle S14 and 100m butterfly S14 and finished seventh and eighth respectively.

In the lead-up to the Paris Games, Betar was training twice daily at UniSC on the Sunshine Coast, under Paralympic Hub head coach Harley Connolly.