It’s been a fantastic day of record breaking for Team GB at the Olympics, with six gold medal winners for the UK this Saturday. Adding to the paddling and pedaling we got jumping and running plus the spectacle of Jessica Ennis, the greatest all-round athlete in the world scoring gold in the Heptathlon.
Team GB Rowing Men’s Four
Alex Gregory, Pete Reed, Tom James and Andrew Triggs Hodge started the day’s gold medal haul this morning. They pulled across the finish line 1.22 seconds ahead of second placed Australia.
The gold medal stamp will be available tomorrow at a Post Office in Alex’s home town of Cheltenham, where Pete lives and trains in Chiswick, Tom’s home town of Wrexham and Andrew’s home town of Hebden. Royal Mail will also paint post boxes gold in these towns to celebrate their wins.
The stamps are being printed at six locations across the UK – chosen to ensure speedy distribution to more than 500 Post Office branches by lunchtime Sunday.
Katherine Copeland & Sophie Hosking Women’s Rowing Lightweight Double Sculls
Having absolutely no chance of winning as they’ve only been rowing together for a few months, Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking stunned the world trouncing their nearest competitor by 2.63 seconds. They not only surprised the world, they also shocked themselves with Katherine exclaiming “I can’t believe this is real and we just won!”.
A stunning shot of the couple’s startled faces adorns their Royal Mail gold medal stamp as they realise they’ve triumphed against all the odds.
The Gold Medal stamp will be available tomorrow at a Post Office in Katherine’s home town of Stockton-on-Tees, and Sophie’s home town of Wimbledon and of course both towns get a gold pillar box.
Team GB Women’s Cycling Team Pursuit
In an unprecedented run the Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott seem incapable of cycling together without breaking a world record. Six team pursuit runs including Friday’s qualifying and today’s final has seen the trio break the world record broken six times in a row.
The celebration gold stamp will be on sale by tomorrow lunch time in Post Office branches across the UK, including Dani’s home town of Southampton, Joanna’s home town of Sutton in London and Laura’s home town of Harlow. Naturally there will be more gold pillar boxes in these towns too.
Jessica Ennis Women’s Heptathlon
The poster child of the Olympics, Jess Ennis put her money where her mouth is today to prove that she is the greatest female athlete in the world. Kicking off by running the hurdles in the individual event gold winning time from Beijing at the last Olympics, she went on to dominate the Heptathon never looking in danger of not winning the gold medal.
In the final event Jessica led for the first lap, was overtaken by two athletes and then powered her way to cross the finishing line first winning the gold. In truth she had a spare 13 seconds and could have come in last and still won gold, but seeing her sprint to the finish it was never in doubt that she was going to give her all and win in style.
Jessica’s lap of honour will be what many remember from the London 2012 Olympic Games, surrounded by her fellow competitors who all so obviously adore her, the stadium erupted in joy at the golden girl’s victory.
Three Post Offices in Jessica’s home town of Sheffield will open tomorrow as well as 500 others around the country so that fans can buy her gold medal stamp featuring the first Heptathlon event, the hurdles. The gold paint brush will be painting a Sheffield post box too.
Greg Rutherford Men’s Long Jump
Having already made what turned out to be the winning jump, Greg and his fellow competitors had Jessica Ennis’ lap of honour to contend with as the completed their event.
8.31m in the fourth jump was the mark set by Greg and all he had left to do after his fifth jump was to wait for other competitors to see if they could beat him. They couldn’t!
Hailing from Milton Keynes the town will see two Post Offices open on Sunday with Greg’s stamps available to purchase. The town will also have a red post box painted gold to celebrate.
Mo Farah Men’s 10,000m
Tonight saw the Eritrains set out to lead the 10,000m race for half the 25 laps but they didn’t have the stamina to finish what they started. Mo Farah held back with his US training partner Galen Rupp until the final two laps saw them sprint to the front to win a gold and silver one, two.
Incredibly Mo was the sixth Team GB gold medal winner of the day thrilling the 80,000 capacity audience at the Olympic Stadium. Royal Mail have been kept busy and Mo’s gold medal stamp will also be on sale in over 500 Post Offices opening this Sunday, including Post Offices in Hounslow and Richmond, neighbouring Isleworth in West London where Mo grew up. Royal Mail will also paint a post box gold in Isleworth.
Post Offices to open on Sunday with Gold Medal Stamps
The stamps will be on sale in over 500 Post Offices across the UK, including for at least three hours this Sunday 5th August. This is the first time that many of these branches have opened on Sundays, to ensure that fans can celebrate Team GB’s achievements and start a unique and special London 2012 souvenir collection.
If you don’t want to visit the Post Office you can order the gold medal stamps from the Royal Mail website.
