The ITU announces the qualification criteria for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has just announced the criteria and qualification period for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games 2016 in which the modality of Paratriathlon. In both the men's and women's categories, three competitions will be held in the JJ.PP. The qualifying period will begin on the next 1 of July of 2015 and will conclude the 30 of June of 2016.

Qualifying places will be assigned to the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) through the ITU World Championships and the ITU Paralympic Qualifying List, instead of individual athletes, with a maximum of two qualifying places per competition of the JJ.PP. To be eligible for selection by a NPC, athletes must be classified in the Classification List on the closing date, as well as be classified internationally, with their sport class status as "confirmed" or "revision".

The best qualified athletes in the ITU 2015 World Championships will get places for their CPN ahead of the Paralympic Games. In addition, the first six athletes classified in the ITU Paralympic Ranking List will also get places for their CPN for the JJ.PP. river.

The organizing country will have the right to directly classify a male athlete and a female athlete if they have not been classified through another method, through the previous methods, with eight other classification places determined by the Bipartite Commission that will be assigned directly to the athlete. Any qualifying place that is not used by a CPN will be reassigned to the next best ranked athlete in the Paralympic Ranking List, for the respective competition. The ITU Executive Council and the ICC will decide the medal events for the Rio program throughout 2014.

ITU will also use a new Paratriathlon classification system this season, which will be implemented early in 2014. Under the new structure of the ITU, the categories will be divided into: one that includes all those who use a chair, three categories for athletes with disabilities in the lower extremities and one category for athletes with visual disabilities. In turn, it should be noted that the ITU recognizes seven types of deficiencies by virtue of its classification system: hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, limb deficiencies, alteration of the passive range of movement, muscle power deterioration and vision impairment.

Likewise, with the new criteria of the Paratriathlon qualification events that will be applied from now on, the number of athletes will be limited for Paratriathlon races in the elite category. In such a way, that in the World Championships they will have a cap of 100 athletes, while the continental championships will have a maximum of 70 and the Paratriathlon World events will be limited to 60

FETRI