Athletics

Lot 2546    Day 2    Athletics

Estimate $100
Bid at live.noble.com.au

AUSTRALIA, Masters Games, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, 1994, Athletics' prize medals (47mm) (3), with ribbon suspension fittings, silvered inscribed '1994/Mavis Carter/Triple Jump/55-59 Yrs', another silvered inscribed '1994/Mavis Carter/Long Jump/55-59 Yrs', bronze inscribed '1994/Mavis Carter/Discus/55-59 Yrs'; 2nd Asia Pacific Masters Games, Gold Coast, Australia, 2000, unnamed competitor's medal in lacquered bronze (45x70mm), with ribbon suspension slot. All medals missing ribbons, the last with areas of oxidation, otherwise very fine. (4)

^Mavis Carter of Wanganui, born at Auckland in 1936, was an athlete for much of her life. Her first international competition was in 1961 when she competed for New Zealand at the World Games for the Deaf in Finland. Up until 2017, then 81 years of age, she had competed at five world events and in her last competition, the World Masters Games in Auckland in April 2017 she won gold and silver respectively in the Women's 80-84 years long jump and triple jump. This earned her the title of 'Amazing Mavis'. Profoundly deaf and diagnosed with cancer she retired from competition after the 2017 Games and died from cancer in the same year. As per her wishes, her ashes were buried with her granddaughters Tiffany, Holly and Claudia who were murdered as young children by their father before he took his own life. The children's mother, Cherie, was devastated but said that her mother, Mavis Carter, was the one who gave her the strength to keep going.^^With research.