Residents of Lizzy Yarnold's West Kingsdown home have honoured the Winter Olympic champion by doing what the Royal Mail were not prepared to do - paint her local postbox gold.

The 25-year-old claimed an emphatic victory in the women's skeleton event last Friday to become Team GB's first athlete to stand atop the podium at the Sochi Games.

British winners at London 2012 were celebrated by having a postbox near where they lived coloured gold, and 43,000 people have signed a petition for Yarnold to be given the same recognition.

When Royal Mail resisted the pressure, Yarnold's fans took matters into their own hands and performed a makeover on the postbox near Sevenoaks, Kent in the early hours of Friday morning.

Yarnold's mother Judith did not think that it was a constructive protest, however. "It's not going to help our campaign," she told reporters.

Royal Mail claim that they are "exploring other ways" of marking British victories.