Post Office to give Laura Trott double gold

Olympic gold medal-winning track cyclist Laura Trott is set to receive an unexpected honour of two golden post boxes after a mix-up over where she grew up.

By The Newsroom

Published 6th Aug 2012, 07:00 BST

Royal Mail pledged to paint a red post box gold in the home town of every British Olympic champion, so Trott was looking forward to a box in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, getting the makeover.

But the company chose Harlow, Essex, to receive a golden box instead because the town is listed as her place of birth on the Team GB website.

Trott, who won the final of the women’s team pursuit on Saturday alongside Dani King and Joanna Rowsell, posted a message to her 22,000 Twitter followers which stated: “So people i need you to tweet @PostOffice for me.. my postbox is going in harlow which isnt in my hometown Cheshunt is where it should be!!”

Tim Cowen of Royal Mail said: “We tweeted her straight back to say we’ll be delighted to do one in Cheshunt as well.”

A red post box was painted gold in Barker’s Pool, Sheffield, yesterday to honour Jessica Ennis and her gold medal heptathlon victory.