Men's double trap could be removed from the Olympic programme ©Getty Images

Three mixed gender team events have been recommended for the 2020 Olympic programme in Tokyo by an International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Ad-Hoc Committee as the governing body seek to establish gender equality.

The Committee was established to meet the International Olympic Committee’s Agenda 2020 reforms, which stated they would "work with the IFs to achieve 50 per cent female participation in the Olympic Games".

A recommendation was made to replace the double trap men’s event with a trap mixed gender team competition, while the 50 metre rifle prone men’s discipline would become to a 10m air rifle mixed gender team event.

The third change would see the men’s 50m pistol competition become a mixed gender 10m air pistol event.

Recommendations were made in light of their currently being nine men’s and six women’s events of the programme currently which the ISSF claim made change necessary.

The Ad-hoc Committee, led by ISSF secretary general Franz Schreiber and which included representatives of athletes and coaches, began the process in 2015.

They revealed they met three times and conducted a detailed analysis of the actual events and involved athlete, coaches, shotgun, rifle, pistol and technical committees in the evaluation process.

It was claimed the decision was made to preserve parity between the shooting disciplines and retaining 15 Olympic events, with five rifle, pistol and shotgun events included.

The ISSF have claimed many different proposals were introduced for the events to be changed, considering factors such as universality, sport presentation, grass-roots development and sustainability.

The men's 50m pistol could be among three events cut from the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020 following a recommendation made by an ISSF Ad-Hoc Committee for more gender equality ©Getty Images
The men's 50m pistol could be among three events cut from the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020 following a recommendation made by an ISSF Ad-Hoc Committee for more gender equality ©Getty Images

They have described the path to recommendations as "difficult, emotional and courageous", with the priority being keeping the sport in the Olympics.

The recommendations have been released to allow athletes, coaches, National Federations and fans to be informed and offer contributions to the discussions.

Further analysis of the recommendations will take place in January when the IOC’s Rio 2016 event based evaluation is released, with the proposals then being submitted to the ISSF Executive Committee and Administrative Council.

The Council are due to make a final decision by the end of February, which will then be put forward to the IOC for their approval in mid-2017.

The ISSF promised all current events will continue to feature on the ISSF World Cup series programme until a final decision is made by the IOC.

Events which are earmarked to be replace will continue to take place in all ISSF World Championships.