The 22-year-old from London, Ont., was beset by doubts prior to her 1,500-metre race Saturday at the Essent ISU World Cup, but she shed them in time to earn her second straight gold in that distance this season.

"I was bad nervous probably until an hour and a half before this race," Nesbitt said. "I was thinking about the past, thinking about the future, not thinking about what I had to do.

"I really just kind of let it all go."

Nesbitt hadn't skated a great 500 metres the previous day, which triggered an onslaught of negative thoughts during her pre-race warmup Saturday: her legs were heavy, she had never skated to her potential at a World Cup on her home track in Calgary and she felt the pressure of expectations that came with her first career World Cup win a week earlier in Salt Lake City.

While she pedalled on the stationary bike between her warmup and race, Nesbitt found some peace of mind.

"I just really tried to focus on remembering how I felt last week and prepared myself mentally," Nesbitt explained. "I'm really happy I got into that state of mind. I was really calm in my race."

"It's pretty exciting to be able to use the good stuff from last week when I was not feeling great for a while."

It was an important development in the psyche of Nesbitt, who represents the next generation of Canada's speedskating talent behind Cindy Klassen, Clara Hughes and Jeremy Wotherspoon, and who is very much a medal prospect for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

"She's getting to be a mature athlete," her coach Marcel Lacroix said. "This summer, we trained really, really hard and she was very disciplined with her training."

(Source: the Canadian Press)