Following his historic appearance at the Olympic Games – where he was the first male athlete with a disability to compete at the able-bodied Games – South African Pistorius will be keen to assert his dominance on the Paralympic stage once more.

He will be participating in his third Paralympic Games and will hope to repeat his success at Beijing 2008, where he won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 400m events in the T44 category.

But a number of strong competitors are aiming to dethrone Pistorius. Reigning world champion American Jerome Singleton – who made history last January when he became the first athlete in seven years to beat Oscar Pistorius – will be hoping to repeat his success in a few weeks' time.

Fellow American Blake Leeper, voted the International Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Month for July after equalling Pistorius’ world record 100m time, has also established himself as a key contender.

So too is Great Britain's Jonnie Peacock, having recently set a world record time

The men's T44 100m final takes place on the evening of Thursday 6 September and is one of 170 gold medal events in Athletics, the largest sport on the Paralympic programme at London 2012.

How the classification works

As in all Paralympic events, athletes in the 100m are grouped into classes according to how much their impairment impacts on their performance, ensuring a fair competition.

The first digit of a class indicates the nature of an athlete’s impairment, and the second indicates the amount of functional ability the athlete has. The 'T' in the T44 represents a track event; classes 40–46 are for athletes with an impairment that affects their arms or legs, including amputees. Find out more about Paralympic classification

Find out more about Athletics at the London 2012 Paralympic Games