It didn't take long for Whitehorse native Graham Nishikawa to get his first win of the 2007 cross-country ski season.

Nishikawa has continued to improve over the past three weeks of competition and last Saturday this progression paid off with a victory at the Open Men's 20 km continuous pursuit race in Quebec City.

The victory helped Nishikawa end a two-year winless drought on the circuit and the timing couldn't have been better as the 24-year-old gears up for the 2008 world cup trials, which are being held in Ontario in January. Only five skiers in the men's category will qualify to compete in the this years' three world cup races.

'Last year I had a pretty dismal season, so this year I changed my training and now I am starting to come back to my old form,' he said. 'It just feels good to know I can beat the best in Canada again.'

This was Nishikawa's fourth overall win on the Noram circuit, which features some of the best skiers in the country.

Nishikawa raced the 20 km pursuit perfectly, holding off on making a push until being sure he could separate himself from the pack. He won the race 11 seconds ahead of his closest competitor. The 20 km pursuit race consisted of eight laps all together, which began with a 10 km classic loop followed by a 10 km free technique loop.

So far this year, Nishikawa has competed in seven races in the Noram series, including three in Quebec City where he also finished fifth in the first race and fourth in the last.

Nishikawa has been racing in the sport since the age of 14 when he became a member of the Yukon ski team, but before that he was involved with the sport at the recreational level.

After high school he began improving his skills in the sport by working out of training centres in the off-season and being a member on different development teams. Nishikawa was also on the national team for the previous two years, but was cut at the end of last season because of a disappointing season that was a result of fatigue from over training.

However, this year is going a lot better for Nishikawa, who was training in the off-season out of Quebec, as opposed to Alberta in 2006. He also has a different approach to training in the sport, learning from mistakes made from the previous year. These differences include being more relaxed and giving his body more time to recover after major workouts.

Nishikawa said learning these lessons from last year has made him a better skier.

'Just knowing my body and knowing how much training I can handle,' he said. 'It is definitely a learning process and I still have a lot to learn, but every year you have to learn what went well and what didn't go right and then adjust and try to see how you respond to a different training style. So there is no right answer, there is no secret training formula.'

He also credits the turn around to just having more enjoyment competing in the sport this year.

'I am just having fun with it again,' Nishikawa said. 'Last year there was a lot of pressure and stress and not performing well. This year is a little more relaxed and I kind of just ski fast and have a better attitude about everything.'

One of his main goals is to get back on the national team when selections are made in the spring. One of the main requirements to making it onto the national team is doing well internationally and Nishikawa hopes to get the opportunity to do so by qualifying to compete in January's upcoming world cup races. Nishikawa has qualified for the world cup before and has already competed in three races at that level.

He said he is not nervous about competing in the upcoming trials.

'That is part of skiing well, you can't be nervous,' Nishikawa said. 'You just have to be relaxed and just know that you can do well and it shouldn't be a problem.'

Despite wanting to make it back onto the national team, Nishikawa isn't putting too much pressure on himself.

'I would like to be back on the national team, but I feel really comfortable off the national team,' he said. 'I have really made some good improvements, but the goal is to get back on the national team and I would like to do that. I would definitely do better because I have learned a lot from the last couple of years.'

Nishikawa said he is confident about being able to compete with the best skiers in Canada and added 'It is definitely good to win and I look forward to doing better.'