World and regional records held by athletes competing in the
T43/F43 (bilateral below the knee lower limb amputations) and T42/F42
(unilateral above the knee lower limb amputations) classes will be reset
on January 1, 2018, after World Para Athletics announced it will
introduce new rules for people with lower-limb amputations. The
international federation of Paralympic athletics will introduce a new
formula to calculate the maximum allowable standing height (MASH) for
athletes with bilateral lower-limb amputations. Any world and regional
records set by athletes competing in those classes prior to 2018 will be
archived.
The decision to implement the new formula comes after a
study initiated in 2006 by the World Para Athletics Classification
Research Project revealed that the current MASH formula systemically
overestimates athlete height. World Para Athletics worked closely with
Wolfgang Potthast, Prof., Dr., German Sport University Cologne, an
expert on the biomechanics of prosthetic running. Following the
development of a new formula, the International Paralympic Committee
(IPC) Classification Research and Development Centre at the University
of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, initiated a small-scale multicenter
project to cross-validate it.
“The new formulas…will reduce the
maximum allowable standing height of a number of double-leg amputees who
compete in the T42/F42 and T43/F43 classes. This will reinforce the
value of athletic performance achieved by the human body to prevail over
equipment and technological advancement,” Peter Van de Vliet, the IPC’s
medical and scientific director, told Inside the Games.
