TEHRAN – Wheelchair basketball and football 5-a-side will represent Iran at the 2020 Paralympic Games, Iran's National Paralympic Committee (NPC) announced on Thursday.

Iran sent a record number of competitors to Rio 2016, being represented by 110 athletes in 12 sports. The Iranian athletes won eight gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals and finished in 15th place.

Iran’s NPC has reduced the number of athletes to 72 at Tokyo 2020, however, wheelchair basketball and football 5-a-side members have opposed the decision and don’t want to miss the prestigious event.  

The football 5-a-side won a silver medal at the 2016 Paralympic Games, while the wheelchair basketball team claimed a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Para Games.   

“More quality, less quantity is our policy in the Games. The members of 14-man executive board have approved the policy because we can win the same number of medals that we won in the previous edition,” Rezaei had said in a news conference in late January.

Iran football 5-a-side and wheelchair basketball teams have already secured their places at the Tokyo 2020 and the Iranian NPC has said that it will communicate with the related entities to allow the teams to partake at the Games.

Iran's best performance at the Paralympic Games since they made their debut at Seoul in 1988 was at London 2012 when they finished 11th with a total of 24 medals, including 10 gold.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games are set to be the biggest and best yet with around 4,400 Para athletes from more than 160 countries taking part in 22 sports.