Athlete leads with torn hip

GOLD COAST: Sydney Olympic triathlon silver medallist Michellie Jones has revealed she guided Paralympic triathlete Katie Kelly to gold in Rio with a labral tear in her hip.

Jones, 47, was Kelly’s guide in the inaugural Paralympic triathlon in Brazil in September in the women’s PT5 event, 16 years after she claimed silver in the sport’s debut at the Olympics in Sydney.

‘‘The day after Rio I went and got an MRI because I had a little hip pain,’’ Jones said.

‘‘I had actually torn my hip labral and the front part of my hip. I had torn the hamstring attachment.’’

Jones and Kelly return to competitive racing at this weekend’s Queensland triseries event at Robina on the Gold Coast.

First paired in 2015, the pair shot to Paralympic fame just a year after Kelly was declared legally blind due to a degenerative disease known as Usher’s syndrome.

This weekend marks the start of the pair’s hopeful run towards the 2020 Tokyo Paralymics, where Kelly would be 45 and Jones 50.