Patrick Singleton's luge season brought faster times and qualification for the Olympics -- but he believes the best is yet to come.

Singleton's season ended on Sunday with a 44th place out of 59 at the World Championships in Calgary.

And in qualifying for that race, he confirmed his place in the luge competition at next year's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Although he has been pleased with his season overall, Singleton believed the improvements he had managed in training and on qualifying runs had not been translated into better race-day performances.

He felt the day he could re-produce his best training form when it mattered most would be the day he mounted a serious challenge to the world's best lugers.

Speaking from Canada, Singleton said: "The biggest thing for me this season was to qualify for the Olympics and I did that.

"Four years ago I would have been quite happy with my races, but now I want to be up there with the top guys. I am a serious athlete and I want to train hard and do what it takes to get myself up among the best.'' In Calgary, Singleton qualified on his first run and managed faster times than any of his International Luge Federation team-mates in the run-up to the race.

The norm is for race times to be faster than qualifying, but Singleton managed only what he described as "an average run'' in the first of two runs on race day and said his time had been around six tenths of a second slower than he had hoped.

On his second run he made an error on curve 10 and skidded which slowed him down considerably, leaving him to wonder what might have been.

And that frustration was typical of Singleton's previous two World Cup races in Nagano and Salt Lake City, where his strong qualifying runs were followed by less impressive race performances.

"This year, I've been impressed with my training -- I've been much faster than last year,'' said Singleton. "Last year my training partner Shiva Keshavan (of India) was quicker than me, but now I've caught up with him and I can beat him. So I'm really happy with my season, but I feel that the three races I have done have not reflected my ability.'' With the season over, Singleton was looking forward to two weeks off after a hectic period on the world-class race circuit, before returning to work as a TV producer for Bloomberg in Japan. But already his mind is turning to what he can do to improve his chances of a successful Olympics.

"I've lost a lot of weight, because of all the exercise I get in the cold weather and I think I need to put on about five kilos,'' said the 65-kilogramme Singleton. "Now I have to wear lead and that makes my start slower.

"So I will be doing lots of heavy physical training as well as cardio and speed work. There's only so much I can do in the summer, but there is a fibreglass track in East Germany and I hope my team will go there for training.'' Speed merchant: Patrick Singleton picks up downhill speed at the start of his run at the World Luge Championships in Calgary, Canada.