Para Athletics

General Rules

Disability Classes

Athletes are classified according to their disability types in one of the following categories:-

• T/F 11-13- Visual impairments.

• T/F 20- Intellectual impairments.

• T/F 35-38- Coordination impairments like in ataxia, hypertonia and athetosis.

• T/F 40-41- Short stature.

• T/F 42-44- Lower limb impairments- limb deficiency, impaired muscle power, leg length difference or impaired range of movement.

• T 45-47/ F 45-46- Upper limb impairments-limb deficiency, impaired range of movement or impaired muscle power.

• T 32-34/ F 31-34 (Wheelchair athletes)- Coordination impairments like in ataxia, hypertonia and athetosis.

• T 51-54/ F 51-57 (Wheelchair athletes)- Limb deficiency, impaired muscle power, leg length difference or impaired range of movement.

Competition Rules

Other rules of the sports are same as that for able-bodied athletes in various disciplines of athletics.

Officials

Starter

Responsible for starting the race by giving commands like “on your marks” and “set,” for firing the start gun and also responsible for making disqualifications and warnings.

Timekeeper

Responsible for recording the running times of the athletes.

Chief Judge

Coordinate the work of the judges and validate the attempt of the athletes by indicating a fair jump/throw with a white flag and a foul jump/throw with a red flag.

Other Judges

Record all attempts made by the competitors and verify the results at the end of each round.

Events

Techniques

Same As Athletics

For techniques, please refer individual sections of the events in athletics.

Participants

Male and female athletes compete as individuals in all the events in Para-athletics except relays in which athletes compete in teams of four.

Playing Area

Running events (sprints, middle/long distance and relays) take place on a running track which is usually 400m in circumference (oval track) consisting of two parallel straights and two bends of equal radii. The track consists of a number of lanes (usually eight or nine) which are generally 1.22 m wide for individual runners.

Marathon takes place on made-up roads. The playing area of long and triple jump includes a runway, a takeoff board and a sandpit which is the landing area. High jump venue includes a semicircular runway, a horizontal bar of approximately 4 meters long placed on two long vertical uprights over which the athletes jump on the landing area. The playing area for throws events includes a throwing circle/runway, a protective cage (for discus and club throw) and a landing area for the shot/discus/javelin/club.

General History

Para sports competitions were initially held in 1952 when wheelchair racing was part of the Stoke Mandeville Games which was organised for World War II veterans. It was one of the first eight games included at the first Paralympic Games in 1960 which were held in Rome, Italy.

Throughout the following 20 years, other impairment groups were added to Paralympic rivalry, and today the game is drilled by competitors in more than 120 nations making it the most played Paralympic Sport.

In 2016, the game was renamed from IPC Athletics to Para Athletics, and the International Federation was renamed to World Para Athletics.