SL3, SH6, T44: how classification decides who competes against whom at the Asian Para Games

What is classification?

It is the system that decides which para athletes compete against each other.

In able-bodied sport, athletes are grouped mainly by sex, and sometimes by age or weight. In para sport, the athletes’ impairments differ widely, and so does the way those impairments affect performance. A sprinter with one below-knee prosthesis and a sprinter with impaired muscle control in both legs should not be racing each other for the same medal.

Classification groups athletes so that, in the words of Paralympics New Zealand, “the success of an athlete is determined by skill, fitness, power, endurance, tactical ability, and mental focus”, rather than by the degree of impairment.

Who is eligible?

Only athletes with at least one of ten recognised types of impairment.

The ten are impaired muscle power, impaired range of movement in the joints, limb deficiency, a difference in leg length, short stature, muscle tension, uncoordinated movement, involuntary movements, vision impairment and intellectual impairment. Some sports admit only some of these. Blind football, which India played against South Korea on Friday morning, is for athletes with vision impairment.

Having an eligible impairment is not enough. Each sport also sets a minimum level of impairment, so that an athlete must be affected enough for it to matter in that sport.

Who decides an athlete’s class?

Panels of trained classifiers, made up of medical and technical experts.

They examine the athlete and watch how they perform the basic actions of the sport, such as gripping a racket, moving across a court or throwing from a seated position. The athlete is then given a sport class. Because the assessment is about the sport, the same athlete could qualify in one sport and not in another, or sit in different classes in two sports.

What do the codes mean in badminton?

They describe how a player moves on court. Para badminton has six classes, and India’s players in Aichi are spread across them.

On the first day, Suhas opened his SL4 singles against Bangladesh’s J. Dhar, Manasi Joshi played China’s L. Yuemei in SL3, and Krishna Nagar faced Chinese Taipei’s J. Lin in SH6. India also had an all-Indian match in the men’s SL3-SU5 doubles, an event that mixes players from different standing classes in one pair.

And in table tennis and athletics?

Table tennis has 11 classes, athletics uses a letter and a number.

In para table tennis, classes 1 to 5 are for players who compete sitting in a wheelchair, 6 to 10 for standing players, and 11 for players with an intellectual impairment. Bhavina Patel, India’s co-flagbearer, is entered in the women’s Class 4-5 singles. Where there are too few players in a class to make a fair event, organisers can merge neighbouring classes into one.

In para athletics, T stands for track and jump events and F for field events. The number tells the impairment group: 11 to 13 for vision impairment, 20 for intellectual impairment, 31 to 38 for coordination impairments, 40 to 47 for short stature or limb impairments, 51 to 58 for wheelchair racing and seated throws, and 61 to 64 for athletes who use a leg prosthesis.

Why are there so many medal events?

Because every class gets its own podium.

The Aichi-Nagoya Games have 18 sports but 492 medal events, with 45 nations taking part. Athletics alone runs a separate 100 metres for many classes. That is also why India’s 168-strong squad, the largest group of them 62 athletes in para-athletics, can win far more medals than its size would suggest in an able-bodied Games.

Is the system ever disputed?

Yes, and it is the most argued-over part of para sport.

An athlete placed in a class with less impaired rivals is at a disadvantage, and one placed with more impaired rivals has an edge. Because a class is a judgement about how an impairment affects a sport, close cases will always be argued over, by athletes and by rival teams. The aim, at Aichi as at the Paralympics, is simple to state and hard to achieve: a race or a rally that is won on ability.