Powerlifting at the Rio 2016 Paralympics: All you need to know

Britain's Zoe Newson claimed a bronze medal at London 2012 in the women's -40kg category

How does it work?

Paralympic Powerlifting is a bench press competition, with athletes lying flat on a specially designed bench and then aiming to lower a horizontally weighted bar from arm's length to the chest and return the bar under control to the same starting position.

The three judges indicate a successful lift with white lights, and an unsuccessful attempt with red lights.

Athletes may make three lifts during the competition and must increase the weight attempted by at least 1kg following a successful lift. Each athlete has three attempts at each lift. A fourth lift may also be attempted for a record, but this does not count towards the final result of the competition.

The athlete producing the greatest result in their category - and within the three scoring competition lifts - takes gold.

In the event of a tie, the winner is the athlete that weighed in the lightest and lifted the joint heaviest weight. If both athletes have an identical body weight, a reweigh is done.

There are 10 different weight categories for both men and women. Athletes are classified by bodyweight alone, which means those with different impairments compete for the same medals. Athletes are weighed two hours before their competition.

Each competition is a straight final, although two groups are held in weight divisions where there are more than eight competitors. When there are two 'flights', or groups, these are known as A and B and are predetermined by athletes' world rankings. The B group will always lift first and the winner is on the whole most likely to come from the A group.

Who are the British medal hopes?

In his third Games, Ali Jawad will be hoping to win his first Paralympic medal after finishing fourth in London. Jawad is the world and European champion. Team-mate Mickey Yule, who lost his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010, won European gold last year.

Who are the other challengers?

Iran's Siamand Rahman is the big man of the sport. Rahman broke the world record on his way to winning gold in London in the over 100kg category with a lift of 285kg and is aiming to lift 300kg in Rio.

Amalia Perez is one of Mexico's leading Paralympians after making her debut in Sydney in 2000. After winning gold in the women's -60kg category four years ago, she will be bidding for a repeat in the category, which is now the -61kg event.

Did you know?

Nigeria topped the sport's medal table at 2012 with 12 medals, including six golds.

ParalympicsGB London 2012 medals

One (Zoe Newson, bronze -40kg).