Markus Rehm: Paralympic champion to face Greg Rutherford

Markus Rehm is the European, world and Paralympic champion in his category

Paralympic long jump champion Markus Rehm will take on Olympic champion Greg Rutherford at next month's Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix.

Rehm, 27, who lost his lower right leg in a wakeboarding accident aged 14, competes using a carbon fibre blade.

The German set a T44 world record of 8.40m at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha last October.

The mark is just one cm shorter than the distance Rutherford jumped to win world gold in Beijing in August.

Rehm, who competed against Rutherford at the FBK Games in Hengelo in 2014, has already stated his intention to compete at the Olympic Games.

But under the current rules of the sport's governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), he will need to prove that he does not gain any advantage from his prosthetic blade.

South African Oscar Pistorius won a similar battle to compete at the London Olympics after going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after the IAAF initially ruled him ineligible.

"Of course time is running out but I am a very positive person and I am hoping to get the chance to convince the IAAF that I can compete against the best in Rio," said Rehm.

"I don't mind if I am not able to win an Olympic medal, but I just want to get the opportunity to compete in my sport to the best possible level.

"My biggest wish is that in the future other athletes will think the same as I do, and we can all find a way to compete together and side-by-side and show we are all the same.

"This is a massive year for me and I think competing against athletes such as Greg will be the perfect way for me to start my preparations," said the German, who will be one of a host of stars at the event on Saturday, 20 February.

In 2014, Rehm became the first athlete with an impairment to compete in the final of an event at the able-bodied German championships, winning the long jump with a distance of 8.24m.

But the German authorities opted not to send him to the European Championships in Zurich, saying they had doubts over whether jumps with a prosthetic limb could be compared to those using a natural joint.