The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation has released the first set of results from Phase-1 of the classification eligibility reassessment process to the relevant National Organisations governing Wheelchair Basketball.
Seventy-five percent of the 134 submitted players have received the decision from IWBF regarding their eligibility status following the reassessment.
The remaining players are either still under review after submitting further evidence or are yet to be able to safely secure any additional documents requested due to coronavirus pandemic, hence have been given an extension to the deadline.
Each case is being reviewed by an IWBF Eligibility Assessment Panel (EAP) and members of the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Classification Committee to come to agreed decisions as to whether a player is eligible. Both are working hard to come to a conclusion on the remaining cases.
The eligibility reassessment is being undertaken following action taken by the IPC Governing Board in January, who instructed IWBF to prove, in two phases, that all internationally classified wheelchair basketball players are eligible under the IPC Athlete Classification Code and International Standard for Eligible Impairments, as a requirement for wheelchair basketball to remain part of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and as a step for IWBF to become compliant with the IPC Athlete Classification Code.
In the first phase of the reassessment process, all players with sport class 4.0 and 4.5 from countries who have qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games were asked to submit forms and medical evidence to assist in verifying that players have an underlying health condition which leads to an eligible impairment according to the IPC Athlete Classification Code and IPC’s International Standard for Eligible Impairments and also that the impairment fulfils the eligibility criteria in the IWBF Official Players Classification Manual.
The second phase of the reassessment process is already underway and will see all other internationally classified players processed under the same procedure. It will be done in a staggered manner with the target to have all players reassessed by the end of 2020.
The results for the remaining cases will be released individually to the relevant NOWB as each decision is finalised between IPC and IWBF. Once all cases from Phase-1 of the reassessment process have been completed, IWBF will publish a further statement.
