BERMUDA skeleton slider Patrick Singleton has decided to try and qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada after winning a Grand Prix race in St. Moritz, Switzerland this week.

Singleton took a lengthy break from the sport after competing in the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006.

But after he started training the British junior skeleton team this past winter his competitive juices began flowing again and he entered some events in Europe – and won the International Preiss Moritz on Wednesday.

And if the 34-year-old athlete does manage to qualify for the Vancouver Games it will be his fourth Olympics having competed in the luge at the Nagano Games in 1998, the Salt Lake City Games in 2002 also on the luge and then on the skeleton in 2006 in Torino.

He told the Mid-Ocean News this week: "I was surprised at how fast I have been. I have kept myself in reasonable shape (since Torino) but I have pushed pretty close to my times at those Olympics. I really don't know the reason why I am so fast right now – maybe it is experience, maybe I feel renewed after so long off. I feel very fresh. On Wednesday other guys were crashing and I was so focussed and quick."

Singleton said he was coaching an element of the British junior team in October and November. "Then in January I was asked to test some of the new British sleds and I was so fast – they (the British) were surprised and so was I. Certain members of the team convinced me to come out and start racing again. I did one race and then another one and have been doing well. Then I won the Grand Prix race on Wednesday."

It was while he was with the British junior team in Innsbruck, Austria in January when he was asked to test some new sleds.

"A lot of the (British) sponsors came to the training camp and they wanted to have a quality race so they got some of us – and there were a few top guys there – and they told me I had to race. I told them that I am the coach now, I said I haven't raced in a long time but they insisted that I race. I eventually agreed and won the race! It wasn't a ranked race but it still surprised me. I hadn't prepared for it and that is what really spurred me to start training again."

Trying to get to another Olympics was not at the forefront of his thinking.

"I had been working in TV in Bermuda and the UK and there was always the option of trying out for the Olympics again – but I really wasn't too focussed on it and then when I got these test times back I was pretty surprised."

Since then he has been to three Inter Continental Cup races in Italy and Germany and then the Grand Prix race in St. Moritz this week.

Singleton also had been to Whistler in Canada for an Olympic test race which didn't carry any ranking points.

"Because I didn't compete last season I am not allowed on the World Cup circuit until I get enough points to get in. The season is coming to an end now – only a few more races. But the big qualifying races for the 2010 Olympics are next October to February. I will have to make sure I am really fit and strong over the summer but more importantly I have to make sure I have the support behind me. I will have to look to have a deal with an international team – perhaps the British team. I will be looking to align myself there and hopefully they will say yes. Support is the key at the elite level. I have worked with the British team before in past Olympics and I will be in negotiations with them – I also have to talk to the Bermuda Olympic Association to let them know what I am doing.

"I am very happy with the new president of the BOA and the general secretary. The things that have been coming out from the BOA are very encouraging and sound great. I think they are moving in the right direction and I have been encouraged by that."