An Italian slider may have narrowly avoided death after hitting a wall at 115 kmp/h on next year?s Olympic skeleton track, but Patrick Singleton is loving it.

The Bermudian winter Olympian managed to propel himself down the Torino circuit in one of the fastest times by any athlete and is feeling excited and confident ahead of next year?s showpiece event.

With little over a year to go, athletes from all the major winter sports nations took to the newly-constructed circuit last week to be met by all manner of problems.

Crashes came with alarming regularity as dust and dirt on the track was hurting people?s equipment ? and hurting people.

Singleton, maybe for the best, was prohibited from joining in the runs on the circuit as the politics of the extreme sport, meant no small nations? athletes were entitled to practice on the circuit.

The Bermudian, who described the site around the actual track as a ?war zone?, used his contacts with the Italian team to finally get a go on the circuit this week, and with much of the mess cleared up, he was flying down the ice.

?I had an awesome day,? said Singleton, a competitor in the luge at the Salt Lake City games.

?It was only my second time on the track and I went as fast as the best in the world and they have been training here for two weeks.

?None of the Italians have been faster than my time yet, in fact they haven?t even gotten within one-and-a-half seconds of my time in the three weeks that they have been training here.

?And no one in the world went as fast as me on their second day, so it is very encouraging.

?If I can get more training next year one of those medals could be mine. I am really excited about the Games and my chances now.?

After spending a few days with his notebook studying each of the track?s 19 turns, Singleton felt he had a pretty good idea of the best lines to take and how best to drive the circuit before he actually suited up himself.

But by the time he did, he knew the design was in his favour.

?The track is not easy. But it is pretty technical which should help me providing I get equal time on it next season,? said Singleton, whose single biggest problem in his chosen sport is his relatively slow starts ? his driving abilities, on the other hand, are earning him many plaudits.

?It is built like a luge course with lots of small, fast curves. I think I could be very fast on this track at the Olympics.?

Singleton will now leave Torino a happy man before heading off for World Championship qualifying and a heavy summer of training, with particular emphasis being placed on his start.

And the Italians will have their work cut out getting everything ready for the winter sports grandstand.

?The track was dangerous and in pretty terrible shape because of all the building work just a couple of weeks ago, so the Italians brought in ice workers from tracks all around Europe,?he added.

?Now the track is looking quite good ? well just the inside of the track. The surrounding area still looks like a war zone. But on the whole I think they have done a fantastic job to get the track built and ready in six months. And to think in late December there still wasn?t ice on the track.

?As athletes we have all we need, a good track and nice changing facilities - all the non-essential things can wait until the Games themselves.

?But a little less dust from the surrounding construction would be very welcome.?