James Hunter, left, and James Lassche, right, have moved from the lightweight four into heavyweight boats.

The women's coxless four class has been added to the rowing programme for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the IOC's move towards gender equality.

To make room for the event as the IOC also aim to reduce the number of athletes competing at the Olympics, the men's lightweight four has been removed from the regatta.

It also means there will be just two lightweight classes at Tokyo - the men's and women's lightweight double sculls.

Rowing's governing body Fisa proposed the changes at an extraordinary congress in Tokyo in February and it was accepted by the executive board of the International Olympic Committee late last week.

There will be an equal number of women and men competing at rowing in Tokyo - 263 each - with rowing's athlete quota reduced from 550 at the 2016 Rio Olympics to 526 for Tokyo.

New Zealand has excelled in the lightweight men's four class in recent years - they won silver at the 2013 and 2014 world champs - but were surprisingly shut out of a medal in Rio when fifth.

Two members of that crew - James Hunter and James Lassche - have switched to heavyweight boats this year, with Hunter teaming up with Tom Murray in the men's pair while Lassche is part of the men's eight crew.

Rowing NZ hasn't named a women's four for the two World Cup regattas the team will contest in Europe over the next two months.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic rowing programme will consist of: Men - single scull, double sculls, coxless pair, coxless four, quad, eight, lightweight double sculls; Women - single scull, double sculls, coxless pair, coxless four, quad, eight, lightweight double sculls.