With Ogopogo-sized tears streaming down her cheek, Team Canada third Cathy Overton-Clapham didn’t have much luck singing the national anthem Sunday afternoon at Wesbild Centre.

After securing only a silver medal in three previous world championship appearances, the 38-year-old veteran finally discovered gold in Vernon.

Asked what was going through her mind on the podium, after Canada’s 7-4 win over China, the lady affectionately known as Cathy O, replied: “It’s pretty emotional. It’s been a lot of time that I’ve put into the game and it’s a lot of time away from home, and practising hard and trying to get better and doing a lot of different things, and it’s finally paid off.

“It’s just kind of surreal. I don’t know that it’s sunk in yet, but it’s pretty exciting.”

Overton-Clapham battled the flu earlier in the week, and had a wonky knee massaged a few times by former Winnipeger Bob Powls, a Vernon physiotherapist who worked for the Canadian track team at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The flooring business owner came up big when it mattered most, throwing a sizzling 86 per cent in the gold-medal match. She hit 90 per cent as Canada rallied to jolt Japan (Moe Meguro) 9-8 in Saturday’s semifinal.

Overton-Clapham was third for Canadian skip Jennifer Jones in Paisley, Scotland (near Glasgow), where Canada went 8-4 and finished out of the medals. Jones loved seeing her buddy bask in glory.

“She’s one of my best friends,” said Jones, of Cathy O. “She’s like a sister to me and Cathy, this is her fourth world championship and I

Overton-Clapham skipped Canada to a bronze medal in the 1990 world juniors in Portage la Prairie, and struck silver as a third for Connie Laliberte at the ‘95 worlds in Brandon.

Jones, who wasn’t surprised by China’s solid play all week, can now put the Paisley showing aside and in perspective.

“Paisley was a great experience. Yah it was disappointing, but we got to represent Canada but this definitely made up for all the bumps along the way, and Paisley, and no matter what happens now in curling, we’ve reached everything we’ve aspired to and hopefully we just keep going.”

Said second Jill Officer, on singing O Canada during the gold-medal ceremony: “Loud and proud baby....it was awesome. When the beat really picks up at the end there, I just totally had chills up and down my body.”

The pro-Canadian rink, which also cheered good China shots, energized Jones and crew.

“The crowd was great,” said Officer. “We knew it would be a packed house and that everyone would really be supportive of us. We knew that they were going to be on our side, but it was great to have them on board. There was a couple of times, actually, it was a little bit hard because they were getting excited and we couldn’t hear each other when we were sweeping but we were also prepared for that too.”

Rookie Canadian lead (Super D) Dawn Askin, 27, sweeps her heart out for a rink that is very resilient.

“If there’s a shot that’s missed, there is always someone there to pick up the next shot, and I think that’s probably key to our team,” said Askin, who works as an adminstrative assistant for the federal government.

As for the Chinese rink, which was always smiling, and bopped to the music in between ends, like they were attending a high school sock hop, Askin said:

Canadian coach Janet Arnott, who played lead for Jones in the ‘05 worlds, and tossed first stones for sister Connie Laliberte, in winning the worlds in 1984, figured her foursome was ready to roll Sunday.

“Somebody asked me this morning how the girls were, and I said, they were pumped,” said Arnott. “They weren’t overconfident because we knew China would play well and we had to come out with our A game. At the same time, we were coming off yesterday’s win and we were feeding off that so we felt pretty good.”

As for Officer’s wedding social Friday in Winnipeg, “You can imagine the party that’s going to happen there,” added Arnott.

EXTRA ENDS: Jennifer Clark-Rouire was Canada’s alternate player...Sunday’s sellout brought the total attendance to 37,225 (excluding volunteers, media and some sponsors)...Switzerland (Mirjam Ott) defeated Japan 9-7 in the bronze-medal game Saturday night. Ott also received the Frances Brodie Award, voted on by fellow curlers, to the player who best exhibits sportsmanship and ability...The 2009 worlds will be in Gangneung City, Korea...Virginia Holland, who works for Watkin Motors, won the 50-50 prize of $5,938 Sunday...Lumby competitivge curler Brittany Rouck took the draw 13 pot of $1,757, while William Smith of Winfield earned $3,697 in the second playoff draw...Jones looked adorable with her hair completely curled and wearing a conservative black and white dress at Sunday night’s banquet at the rec centre. She thanked just about everybody in a speech on behalf of the players, mentioning that worlds ice tech Dave Merklinger, of Vernon, had accidentally hit her at the Scotties, where he also handled the ice, “so he owed us.” Jones also praised Team Canada driver Darlene Spearman. “Darlene’s husband (Bob) was the driver for Team China so I don’t know if they slept in the same bed last night.”