Jennifer Jones celebrates her third national championship Sunday in Victoria, B.C. Jennifer Jones celebrates her third national championship Sunday in Victoria, B.C. (Jonathan Heyward/Canadian Press)

Jennifer Jones won her second consecutive Tournament of Hearts title on Sunday night in Victoria with an 8-5 victory over Marla Mallett of B.C.

Jones has now won the Canadian women's curling championship three times in the last five years. Along with third Cathy Overton-Clapham, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin, she will represent Canada at the world championships in Gangneung, South Korea, later this month.

The Winnipeg skip won the world championship last year in Vernon, B.C.

"I'm sure it probably won't live up to Vernon, but I don't think anything could," said Jones, who has already qualified for the 2010 Olympic trials. "But it's a huge honour to represent Canada. We can't wait to go."

Jones had beaten Mallett 6-5 earlier in the tournament. She then earned a berth to the final with a wild 12-8 semifinal win over Quebec's Marie-France Larouche.

"We felt like we couldn't get any breaks this week," said Jones. "It's not like we were playing that badly."

The team traded one-point leads in the final until the sixth, when Mallett forced a blank.

But she ran into trouble in the seventh end, when a hit-and-stick with her first shot left Canada sitting one.

Jones removed another B.C. stone with her final shot to lie two, and Mallett's draw to the four-foot was short, leading to the big steal.

"A little soft out of my hand, that's as simple as it was," said Mallett. "On this ice, if you let it out soft, it's gonna grab the curl and go. And that's what happened."

For her second-place showing, Mallett earns a spot in the Olympic pre-trial tournament to be held in November in Prince George, B.C.

"Of course it's very disappointing, but we did have a great week," Mallett said of her loss in the final. "We learned a lot, and we'll bring it back next year."

Overton-Clapham has four Hearts wins in her career, getting the first for Manitoba's Connie Laliberte in 1995.

Next year's tournament be held in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.