The congregation agreed the criteria for qualification and were updated on the progress of the Paralympics taking place in London this year, as well as of those being hosted by Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Sir Philip Craven (pictured below), President of the IPC said: "It was an extremely productive few days in the Spanish capital and I would like to thank all the governing board members for attending.

"It was the last time London 2012 will present to the Board ahead of this summer's Paralympic Games and Chris Holmes, London 2012's director of Paralympic integration, left us all full of confidence that his team will deliver a truly great Games.

"In addition to the Sochi 2014 qualification criteria being ratified we also received an update from Sochi 2014 President Dmitry Chernyshenko on the progress being made in Russia ahead of the next Winter Games."


The Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics run from March 7 to 16.

Meanwhile, the Governing Board of the IPC has also approved minutes from the last meeting in Beijing, China last year, as well as the audited accounts for 2011.

The IPC is also to publish statistics of the 2011 IPC Anti-Doping Programme, which will be provided to the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA).

The IPC also announced that Jobo Raswoko, President of the National Paralympic Committee of Lesotho, has been appointed to their Development Committee.

The next IPC Governing Board meeting is taking place in London on August 27, two days before the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games.

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