Get ready for more women's weight classes and a new tiebreaker system.

The IWF Executive Board has made two major changes to the technical rulebook after two days of meetings in Beijing. The first big change brings equality to the men's and women's sides of the sport by adding two new women's weight classes. Originally the new divisions were proposed as 85kg and 85kg+, but the Executive board has decided to add 90kg and 90kg+ divisions which brings the total of women's weight classes to eight, the same as the number of men's divisions.

Here is the full list of women's weight classes as of January 1st, 2017:

• ​48kg
  
• 53kg
• 58kg
• 63kg
• 69kg
• 75kg
• 90kg
• 90kg+

Historically, most women's super heavyweights weigh in above 90kg so this change doesn't affect many of the heaviest competitors. Instead it encourages a new breed of heavyweights to compete between 75kg and 90kg. Between the Olympics and the 2015 World Championships, there were eight women who fell into that new weight class.

The second massive change to the rulebook deals with the bodyweight tiebreaker rule. In the case of a tie in total, the existing rule awards the win to the athlete who weighs less. The Executive Board has completely done away with this rule. The new tiebreaker rule awards the win to the athlete who hit the total first. The idea is that this change will make sessions more competitive as athletes who go later in the session are now encouraged to take even heavier attempts in order to avoid a tie. If this rule were in affect in the past few years, it would have had a massive impact on several world championship and Olympic medal competitions.

Easier to follow and more exciting competitions are always a good thing, and if this rule works as the Executive Board intends, it'll result in both those things happening.