September 2024, as eight teams will play for the coveted gold medal, which will be awarded after four days of action.

To ensure the matching of the teams – i.e., the motoric capacity of a team must match the motoric capacity of the opponents – each player undergoes a series of tests conducted on two separate days before the start of Egypt 2024.

This is commonly known as “classification”, which consists of three parts. The first one was done before the teams arrived in Egypt, a pre-event eligibility check via a Medical Diagnostic Form, signed by a certified medical doctor.

Classification is a unique and essential feature of para sport, which provides the cornerstone for credible, competitive, fair, and meaningful high-performance competition for athletes with a disability all over the world.

The second part has been done on site, in the Dr Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall, in by a panel of six recognised classifiers, who have assessed each player during a 15-minute session to determine if the player meets the Minimum Impairment Criteria (MIC).

These MIC are based on the players’ functional capacity to complete the skills necessary to play – pushing, pivoting, shooting, dribbling, passing and catching. It is not an assessment of a player’s level of skill, merely their functional capacity to complete the task. 

While some players have previously been classified, others needed to undergo the assesments by the panel formed by six specialists -  Mr Kees van Breukelen, Mr Gustavo Pazinato, Mr Benoit Sechet, Mr Trien Tan Dinh, Mr Takekazu Yashiki and Mrs Karina Santos Guedes de Sa.

The panel is formed by a combination of members with a medical and a technical background.

The third part of the process is the competition assessment. The classification panel requires that an athlete undertakes observation in competition assessment before it allocates a final sport class and designates a sport class status to that athlete. 

Observation in competition assessment must take place during first appearance. In the observation assessment, the impairment-performance relation will be (further) analysed. The purpose is to check if the athlete’s performance in competition is consistent with the results of the preceding physical/technical assessment.

The main parts of the classification for this competition have been forward flexions, rotations, lateral flexion and, after all the exams have been completed, the assessment is done, a profile for the player is made and each player is scored.

A colour code will then be used to identify the class of each player. A sticker with the code and the player’s number will be placed on the back of the wheelchair. There are four classes:

• Class 1: green (1 point)
• Class 2: yellow (2 points)
• Class 3: blue (3 points)
• Class 4: red (4 points)

For each team in the competition, there cannot be players with more than 12 points on the court at the same time.