The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is facing a race against time to ensure those remaining 116 competitors have been graded prior to their sport starting in the Japanese capital.

A total of eight sports are set to complete their classification process in the host city with almost half of the unclassified athletes coming in athletics.

Classification determines who is eligible for Para-sport and ensures athletes compete against others who are similarly impaired.

Fifty-two athletes in athletics are due to be graded, along with 18 in wheelchair rugby, 17 in sitting volleyball, 10 in rowing, eight in cycling, five in both boccia and wheelchair tennis and one in canoeing.

Craig Spence, spokesperson for the IPC, said classification started yesterday with the hope of completing the process before each athlete is due to compete.

The IPC introduced a policy in 2014 to ban classification taking place at the Paralympic Games in order to prevent disruption that would be caused by a last-minute decision.

However, this rule has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic which has forced many sporting events to be cancelled.

It has left 116 athletes now facing an anxious wait to see which class they will be put in or whether they will even be deemed eligible to compete at Tokyo 2020 at all. 

"Classification has been a real challenge prior to Tokyo due to the pandemic," said Spence.

"As you are aware the IPC usually does not classify the athletes at the Paralympic Games because it can cause people undue stress as it means that sometimes athletes move class or are ineligible.

"Ideally we would have liked to have done this ahead of the Paralympic Games but due to the pandemic and the challenges that we have faced with the lack of competition we have had to put to one side our policy of not doing classification at the Games.

"We will be classifying eight sports at Tokyo 20202 and I must thank the Organising Committee for their efforts in allowing us to do the classification at the Games and the International federations who have done a sensational job in the past six months to classify as many athletes as possible ahead of the Games."

Spence also confirmed 37 international classifiers had arrived in Tokyo and would remain in the Japanese capital until the athletes had completed their competitions.

"Classification is underway and we want to have all the athletes classified ahead of their first competition date," added Spence.

"The competition is staggered for many sports.

"We started yesterday and we will continue through to the first day of competition.

"Obviously the classification process is done by the rulebook so a number of the classifiers stay on for the competition.

"You are put in a class and then you are observed in competition to ensure that you are in the correct class.

"Yesterday during classification in athletics, one athlete was changed class than they originally came here for."

Ten sports were originally due to be classified in Tokyo, but Spence confirmed judo and swimming had already finished the process before heading to Japan.

The IPC previously stated the zero classification policy would return for the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics.