Canadian long-track speedskater Nesbitt opens season with gold in 1,000 metres

BERLIN - Canadian long-track speedskater Christine Nesbitt is picking up where she left off last season.

The world champion in the 1,000 metres shook off some pre-race jitters to capture gold Saturday at the season-opening World Cup event.

"I don't think I've ever won my first competitive race back. It's really cool, it shows that my training's been going really well," Nesbitt said in a conference call. "I've been feeling really good and I think I've been skating technically better than ever, so I knew that I had the ability to win today."

Nesbitt, from London, Ont., got out to what she believed was her quickest opening lap en route to a time of one minute 15.41 seconds.

"I didn't expect the times to be as fast as they were today," Nesbitt said. "That was a nice surprise too."

Nao Kodaira of Japan was second in 1:15.92 and Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands was third in 1:16.13.

Brittany Schussler of Winnipeg was fifth in 1:16.71.

The 24-year-old Nesbitt said she struggled with nerves before the race, which made the victory all the more satisfying.

"It's sometimes hard to focus when you haven't been racing that much yet," she said. "I didn't know who I was going to be competitive with, that's how I felt today. I was kind of looking around at everybody, maybe worrying a little bit. It's just the fear of the unknown.

"It's nice that I could put a nice race together even though I was having trouble focusing."

In the men's 5,000, Sven Kramer of the Netherlands won gold in 6:14.69. Havard Bokko of Norway took silver in 6:17.17 and Bob de Jong of the Netherlands won bronze in 6:19.22.

China's Beixing Wang won gold in the women's 500 metres in 37.85. Germany's Jenny Wolf took silver in 38.04 and Nao Kodaira of Japan won bronze in 38.19.