More than 370 athletes from 40 countries, including 50 Rio 2016 Paralympic Games medallists, will compete at the season opener which will be held at the Dubai Club for the Disabled.

The event is the first of a series of nine Grand Prix events, which will be completed before the London 2017 World Para Athletics World Championships in July.

Kuwait’s Paralympic champion Ahmad Almutairi is set to compete in Dubai.

He won his country's first gold medal since Athens 2004 when he took victory in the men's 100 metres T33 at Rio 2016. 

The 22-year-old, who also won the 2015 World Championships title, is set to battle Great Britain's Paralympic bronze medallist Andrew Small and Germany's Denis Schmitz.

Namibia's Ananais Shikongo won his first Paralympic title last year in the men’s 200m T11 in 22.44 seconds, just 0.03 outside the world record, and he will be in action next week.

Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka won the 1,500m T13 gold in Rio with a new world record of 3:48.29.

The top four finishers in that event were all faster than the time it took for Matthew Centrowitz to win the Olympic title on the same track.

Baka lines up against a field including his twin brother Fouad who finished fourth in Rio.

Switzerland's Marcel Hug will compete in six distances in Dubai, from 100m through to 5,000m.

In the 5,000m, Hug will face Sho Watanabe of Japan who beat him to first place at February’s Tokyo Marathon.

All three medallists from Rio 2016 are set to compete in the men's shot put F33.

Germany’s Daniel Scheil, Algeria’s Kamel Kardjena and Saudi Arabia’s Hani Alnakhli claimed gold, silver and bronze respectively in Brazil. 

Brazil’s former Paralympic champion Terezinha Guilhermina and Britain’s newly crowned champion Libby Clegg are set to both race over 100m and 200m in the T11 visually impaired categories.

In the women’s discus F57, Algeria’s Nassima Saifi and Ireland’s Orla Barry won gold and silver respectively at the Rio Games and they will both be in action next week.

Saifi is also the reigning world champion and world record holder.

Another of Algeria’s Paralympic gold medallists, Asmahan Boudjadar, will be in action in Dubai a year after she broke the javelin F33 world record and set a new African shot put record at the same event.

Following competition in Dubai, competitors will head to the annual meeting in Tunisia’s capital Tunis from April 13 to 15, before São Paulo hosts the third event of the campaign between April 20 and 22.

Four Grand Prix events are scheduled for May, starting with one in Rieti in Italy from May 5 to 7.

The series is then set to move to Arizona in the United States from May 12 to 13, with a competition in Chinese capital Beijing due to run alongside from May 13 to 15.

Europe has been chosen to stage the last three competitions of the season.

Paris will hold its maiden competition from May 30 to 31 while Nottwil in Switzerland will host the penultimate event from June 2 to 5.

Berlin, the venue for the 2018 European Championships, will stage the final World Para Athletics Grand Prix on June 17 and 18.

Following the conclusion of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix, the World Para Athletics World Championships are scheduled from July 14 to 23 at the Olympic Stadium on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.