Basking in the glow of Scotties title

By JIM BENDER, Winnipeg Sun

  Less than 24 hours later, Cathy O was still basking in the glow of perhaps her most satisfying triumph among a string of rather significant championships during her illustrious career.

“I’m feeling great,” Cathy Overton-Clapham said Monday. “My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.”

Overton-Clapham, of course, won the Manitoba Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Altona on Sunday — the year after she was sent packing by the Jennifer Jones team that she helped win the last three Canadian crowns — and a women’s world title.

“I’ve just been overwhelmed by the e-mails and the phone calls, and they’ve come from all over the world, including from some of the European teams,” Overton-Clapham said. “I heard from the Sweden team and (Scotland skip) Eve Muirhead … I got an e-mail from (Canadian curling legend) Colleen Jones, too.”

And if you don’t think that support has something to do with showing support after the bitter split from Jones, you haven’t been paying attention.

It was Overton-Clapham’s record-tying seventh Manitoba title and she will be making her 11th trip to the nationals in Charlottetown, P.E.I., where she will meet Jones in what will become the most hyped women’s curling contest ever.

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Cathy Overton-Clapham and her Fort Rouge rink defeated Chelsea Carey of Morden 7-4 on Sunday night to capture the 2011 Scotties Tournament of Hearts at the Sunflower Gardens in Altona.