A sudden change in weather cost Patrick Singleton a place in the Olympic top ten yesterday ? but the skeleton slider declared proudly ?19th in the world isn?t that bad!?

With snow falling in the afternoon in Torino, Singleton was faced with an 11th hour dilemma on whether to use standard or snow runners on his sled. He went with the latter but when the weather improved it was too late to change and Bermuda?s sole competitor at the Games was always going to be left out in the cold when it came to the medal hunt.

?I was really struggling to control the sled,? said the 32-year-old, whose 22nd and joint 18th place finishes in the two heats left him in 19th overall out of 26 with a combined time of one minute 59.81 seconds.

?Picking your runners is all part of skeleton and based on the weather we made a decision. But once the snow had stopped, it was too late to swap and we had to make do.

?In the regulations you can?t change runners between heats, so for the second run we were stuck with the same ones, although we made some slight modifications and that helped.

?I was much happier with the second run, I took about a third-of-a-second off my time although by then it was too late to get up as high as I wanted.

?I got 19th in the end and despite the disappointment of knowing I could have done better with the right runners, 19 in the world isn?t bad ? I?ll take that.?

Singleton did get a brief taste of glory yesterday, finding himself in the hallowed winners? box for being in medal position at the start of the second heat ? an opportunity only earned because his slow first run time made him one of the first to compete the second time around.

?It was nice, I guess,? said Singleton, who was pictured laughing away during his short stint in first place.

?If you are near the back from the first run, you get to go earlier second time around so I was in the lead for a bit when hardly any of the guys had gone. It was fun, all the Brits and Canadians were cheering me while I was there.

?All in all it was a great day, although it is frustrating for me that I didn?t do better because of the runners.?

In the first heat Singleton broke five seconds for his push, faster than during official practice but a tenth of a second slower than official training there last November. But the difficulties with sled steering meant his normally superlative driving skills didn?t propel him further up the pack and he finished in 1:00:06

Second time around, and with modifications to the runners, he performed better finishing in 59.75 to leave him joint 18th, sealing 19th overall.

Late last night, alcohol passed his lips for the first time in six months as Singleton joined his British training partners for a celebration of Shelley Rudman?s silver medal in the women?s competition on Thursday.

After a day of rest today, tomorrow he heads off to St. Moritz to get some practice time on the track that will host the world championships next year before returning to Torino in time for the closing ceremony.

And his plans for the future?

?If you look at the podium, you will see all these guys are either late 30s or early 40s, that bodes well for me,? Singleton added.

?I would love nothing more than to spend another four years devoting myself to this. I am getting better all the time and they say that it takes a good six years to become world class in this.

?If I could secure the funding to keep doing this then I would love nothing more than to go to the next Games in Vancouver where I?m sure I would be right up there, chasing for a medal.

?And talking of support, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped me get here, all my friends and family and everyone in Bermuda, particularly my sponsors Montpelier Re and Capital G who stepped in earlier this year.?