NEW YEAR'S HONOURS: Cycling star Jody Cundy given OBE after Rio glory

Jody Cundy has been given an OBE following his double gold triumph at the Rio Paralympics

The 38-year-old has been recognised for the second time after winning two gold medals at last summer’s Paralympics in Rio.

He regained the kilometre time trial title he controversially lost when he was disqualified in London four years ago and teamed up with Louis Rolfe and Jon-Allan Butterworth to win the mixed team sprint event in a new world record time.

Speaking from her home in Walpole St Andrew, his mum Ann revealed he had only told her about the award a couple of days ago.

She said: “It’s absolutely amazing, but totally deserved. It was the performance of the games, but I’m just a bit biased.”

The latest award comes eight years after he was given an MBE in recognition of his success at the 2008 games in Beijing, where he also won double gold.

Jody, who is now back in training, won a further two world championship gold medals in 2016, taking his career total to 12 since switching sports from swimming a decade ago.

He is hoping to defend those titles in 2017, though it is still not clear whether the championships will take place as originally intended in the spring or not.

And Ann hinted he wouldn’t be making a decision on whether he plans to compete at the next Paralympics, in Tokyo in 2020, any time soon.

She said: “He’s taking it a year at a time.”

Other honours in the region include OBEs for Christopher Newsome, asset management and executive director of Anglian Water, and Julia Nix, district manager for the Work Services Directorate within the Department for Work and Pensions.