Jason Smyth reclassified due to deterioration of his eye condition

Just 24 hours before the start of the Paralympic Athletics European Championships, Derry's four-time Paralympic gold medallist Jason Smyth has been reclassified from a T12 to a T13 athlete due to a deterioration in his eyesight.

What it means in the short term is that he will be competing against a different field to the one he expected to when the competition begins in Swansea on Tuesday morning. Longer term, however, it is potentially good news in the lead in to the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.

Classification in Paralympic sport arranges competitors into roughly equivalent categories according to their level of disability. It is necessary in order to provide fair competition across the wide range of events run under the auspices of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

The lower the number beside your classification, the more severe your disability. Thus, going from T13 to T12 is an indication that Smyth’s strain of Stargardt’s Disease has become more serious since last year’s world games in Lyon.

“It was not what I was expecting,” said Smyth yesterday. “I have found it hard to get my head around the fact that a few days before my competition everything has changed; the days I am competing, who I compete against, everything. It also means since the last time I was classified my eyesight has got worse which is never what you want to hear.”

The silver lining as regards his future is that, assuming he stays in the T12 classification, Smyth will be able to compete in the 100m and 200m in Rio two years from now. While he won both events in London and Beijing, the 200m has since been dropped from the T13 classification.

“Saying all that it doesn’t change what I want to achieve. I want to run faster, have more success in Paralympic sport and continue to bridge the gap between Paralympic and able bodied sport.”

Smyth is one of an Irish team of eight in Swansea, including fellow double Paralympic and world champion Michael McKillop and fellow London Paralympic medallist throwers Orla Barry and Catherine O'Neill. They are joined by wheelchair racer at 100m and 400m John McCarthy, teenage long jumper and sprinter Heather Jameson, shot putt and javelin thrower Lorraine Regan, and newcomer to this level Andrew Flynn, who races in the 5000m.