World Para Athletics confirmed that all records in the classes will be archived as of January 1, 2018 after revealing it will be introducing new rules for double-leg amputees.

A new formula to calculate the maximum allowable standing height (MASH) for double-leg amputees will come into effect as of that date with new record marks to be established at the end of the 2018 season.

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.

Following the development of a new formula, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Classification Research and Development Centre at the University of Queensland, led by Dr Sean Tweedy, initiated a small-scale multi-centre project to cross-validate it.

As the world record holder in the men’s 200 metres T42, Whitehead is among the athletes set to be affected by the move.

But the Briton, who claimed a fourth consecutive 200m title here at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships on Saturday (July 15) before winning bronze in the 100m on Monday (July 17), has queried why he should lose his world record.

"My height on the track on Monday and Saturday will be the height that I run next year with the same prosthetics as I run next year, so why take my records away from me?" Whitehead told insidethegames.

"The IPC can give me a pair of flex runs and I’ll run the time that you want me to run and I’ll set a world record.

"But just to take the world records that I’ve worked all my life for, how does that motivate the athletes?

"Surely it’s about supporting success, not putting barriers and obstacles in front of the athletes."

IPC summer sports director Ryan Montgomery claimed the Para-athletics community was made aware of the new formula in October 2015, during the World Championships in Qatar’s capital Doha.

Whitehead said he had heard "inklings" about that, but insisted there was "no concrete information given".

The 41-year-old, who is celebrating his birthday today, confirmed he had his re-classification carried out during last month’s World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Nottwil in Switzerland and was told that the new height he was given was a "better estimation" of the height that he should be.

"In my books this is still an estimation," Whitehead, who has also hit out at the IPC for excluding double-leg amputees from the men's 100m T42 event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, said.

"So there’s no clarity there and I think it needs to be more consistent."

He added: "Under the new classification system, it doesn’t actually affect my height at all so my records should stand.

"I’ve always ran on the same feet.

"If you go back to my days of running marathons, all the way to my track exploits, I’ve never run on any different feet and you can look from all the way back to 2004 to obviously the ones that I ran on the track.

"The only difference is obviously the soles that I put on the bottom of the feet themselves, but obviously specific to the track."

The United States’ Rudy Garcia-Tolson, who competed in the men’s 100m and 200m T42 events at the London 2012 Paralympics, has also criticised the move.

The 28-year-old, a five-time Paralympic medallist in his strongest sport of swimming, tweeted: "Terrible.. Just terrible... What is IPC doing.....?". 

The Netherlands’ Marlou van Rhijn, a three-time Paralympic gold medallist, is among the athletes that will lose their global marks as the world record holder in the women’s 100m, 200m and 400m T43 events.

Longer blades can allow for a longer stride and therefore produce quicker times.

The now-disgraced South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius challenged the length of prosthetic blades worn by the Brazilian Alan Oliveira at London 2012. 

Pistorius, a six-time Paralympic gold medallist on the track, was beaten to the men’s 200m T44 gold medal by Oliveira and subsequently insisted that the sport had to find a more consistent method of measurements if it was to thrive.

Speaking at a recent media workshop on Para-athletics classification prior to the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships, Peter Van de Vliet, the IPC’s Medical and Scientific Director, said Pistorius' allegations were not founded "because everybody competing had their blade length legitimate under the rules".

When contacted by insidethegames regarding Whitehead's comments, an IPC spokesman reiterated that "all records will be archived due to the new MASH rule".