Paralympic factoid: blade runners

Athletes with classification T/F 61 to 64 compete wearing lower limb prosthetic/s (blades). But even these need to be within the rules - it wouldn't be fair for a sprinter to have overly longer blades than their competitors! So how is this calculated and checked?

World Para Athletics (WPA) hold the MASH (Maximum Allowable Standing Height) data for each athlete as part of their classification. It's calculated using formulas that incorporate standing height, sitting height, thigh length and arm measurements - depending on which non-prosthetic limbs the athlete has. The formulae are published in the WPA rulebook:

e.g. For males with above knee deficiencies:

Max. height = -5.857 + (1.116 x sitting height) + (1.435 x upper arm) + (1.189 x forearm) + 2.62

Luckily once this is done in the classification process, it's fairly simple for the officials to check: in the call room the athlete's height is measured before each event, or each round of a track event. Their height, wearing their competition prosthetic/s must be equal or lower than the MASH in their WPA data.