The update and revision of the rules, which will come into effect on January 1, 2018, comes after input by and consultation with the World Para Athletics membership, the World Para Athletics Classification Advisory Group and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) management team.

Following the consultation, new testing has been introduced to assist decision-making in classification in an attempt to further ensure that athletes are allocated the appropriate sport class.

As a result of the new testing, all athletes with a confirmed or fixed date review in sport classes T/F 20, T/F 31-34 and T/F35-38 will be placed back to a review status for the next year.

It will therefore be mandatory for all athletes who attend a competition to be classified, if World Para Athletics classification is conducted there.

From the start of next year, World Para Athletics will also introduce the new T61-64 sport classes group.

This will commonly feature "athletes who run or jump with prosthetic lower limbs".

The existing T42-44 classes will now exclusively be for athletes with lower limb impairment who are able to run or jump using two anatomical limbs.  

It is expected that the transfer of athletes to the respective new classes does not require most athletes to be put in review.

Athletes with double leg above the knee amputation who compete in running or jumping using prostheses will be placed into the T61 category.

The T62 category will be made up of those athletes with double below the knee amputation who compete in running or jumping using prostheses, while the T63 category will comprise those with single above the knee amputation who compete in running or jumping  using prostheses.

Athletes with single below the knee amputation who compete in running or jumping using prostheses will be placed in the T64 category.

"These are major changes for the sport of Para-athletics, but major changes that are being made following full consultation with the Para-athletics community and relevant research groups," Peter Van de Vliet, the IPC’s medical and scientific director, said.

"We would like to thank everyone for their support in these steps.

"Classification is an evolving process and armed with better research we can take important decisions like this to further develop the sport. 

"By introducing additional testing for the 20s and 30s classes we can assist further in the correct classification of athletes."

Ryan Montgomery, the IPC’s summer sports director, added: "We would like to thank the membership of Para-athletics and our research partners for the great work they have conducted to ensure classification in Para-athletics remains objective and transparent.

"We are also looking forward to bringing together all of our World Para Athletics classifiers in the upcoming weeks, where they will undergo an extensive recertification process prior to the implementation of the new rules in 2018."

Recommendations from the IPC Classification Research and Development Centres of Brisbane and Leuven, in Australia and Belgium respectively, were also taken into account along with appeals upheld by the IPC Board of Appeal of Classification.

The new World Para Athletics classification rules are currently in the final stages of review by the IPC Medical and Scientific Department and IPC Legal Department.

Once these reviews have been completed, the final version of the rules is due to be published.

Among the athletes set to be affected by the revision to the Para-athletics classification system is Great Britain’s Jonnie Peacock, the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic champion in the 100 metres T44.

He will compete only against other single-leg amputees in a new T64 category.

In July, Peacock’s fellow Briton Richard Whitehead criticised World Para Athletics’ decision to re-set all T43/F43 and T42/F42 world and regional records at the beginning of next year, questioning how such a move is supposed to motivate athletes.

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 IPC Classification Research and Development Centre in Brisbane, 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 200m T42, Whitehead is among the athletes set to be affected by the move.

But the Briton, who claimed a fourth consecutive 200m title at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London before winning bronze in the 100m, queried why he should lose his world record.

"My height on the track [this year] 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."