PRAGUE – Sherraine MacKay of Brooks, Alta., won the gold medal defeating Xiaojuan Luo of China 15-11 in the final of the Prague d’Or Epee World Cup Sunday.

"I can't tell you how honouring it was to hear the Canadian national anthem being played as I watched the rise of our great maple leaf flag!" MacKay said with a wink and a smile. "You know, I was practising singing the words between matches in the semi-finals."

Currently ranked second in the world, MacKay’s seventh career world cup gold medal came one week after kicking of the 2006 season with a silver medal in Budapest.

“After winning silver last week, my coach asked me if I actually wanted to win a world cup. I guess that was the perspective I needed to get me to the next level. Here’s proof that I DID indeed want to win gold!”

MacKay’s first round match was a nail-biter as at the end of regulation time she and Katalin Izso from Hungary were tied 6-6. Her opponent was award priority. (This means that at the end of the one minute overtime period, if no one scores a point, the person with priority would automatically be declared the winner.) With a mere four seconds remaining, MacKay lured Izso in and launched an attack scoring to win 7-6.

“I wasn’t what you would call perfect today but I did what is takes to win.”

MacKay then scored victories over France’s Perrine Moinecourt 15-4, Kelley Hurley from the United Stated 15-13, Austria’s Andrea Rentmeister 15-10 and Beata Tereba of Poland 15-11 in the semi-finals.

Beata Tereba and Li Zhang of China won the bronze medals.

Other Canadian results came from Montreal’s Julie Leprohon who finished 35th following a 15-10 first round loss to Kathrin Holz of Germany while Toronto’s Ainsley Switzer placed 47th after her first round heartbreak loss 12-11 to Anna Kohv from Estonia.

Catherine Dunnette from Calgary was 71st while Ontario’s Leigh Voigt finished 85th.

There were 139 competitors in the event.

The World Cup season continues next week with the first Grand Prix of the year in St-Maur, France.

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