Local hero Will Bayley arrived back at Heathrow yesterday [Tuesday] with his gold medal from the Paralympic Games in Rio.
The Groombridge table tennis player Tweeted pictures of himself enjoying First-Class comfort on board the British Airways flight from Brazil.
He won the Class 7 Singles event, and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has commissioned a golden ‘postbox’ to allow local residents to post their messages of congratulations to him.
It will be situated in the Tunbridge Wells Museum, the Assembly Hall Theatre and at the Farmers’ Market on September 24 and October 8.
The council hopes to present the box and all the messagesinside to Will at the annual Love Where We Live Awards ceremony in October.
The postbox was crafted by Terry Malone of Sevenoaks, who first made one for Winter Olympics skeleton gold medallist Lizzie Yarnold.
On his arrival at the airport Will, 28, said:
“It’s been a whirlwind few weeks but I’m just delighted to be back in the country I love.”
After his Rio win, he celebrated by jumping up on to the table tennis table – a manoeuvre which has since become famous.
“I don’t know why I did jump on the table,” he reflected. “I just thought, ‘well this is the pinnacle of my career, it’s not going to get any better than this’.
“So I did some crazy air celebration, but when I was on the table I was thinking, ‘what am I doing up here?'”
