celebrating his first appearance in the Olympic Games.

Almost two days after representing Bermuda in the luge, he was still up, in the Olympic Village, watching videotapes of one of his memorable slides down the Spiral ice track in Nagano.

"I can't believe it's over,'' he said over a crackling telephone cable yesterday.

After investing thousands of dollars and countless hours, Singleton yesterday was still trying to come down from not only the realisation of his lifelong dream but also an Island-best 27th-place finish in two days of racing on Monday and Tuesday.

Asked if it had all sunk in, Singleton said: "That's not going to happen for a little while.

"It's like going though a bit of withdrawal. Earlier, I was watching the girls (luge event) and I'm watching the lines (they took down the track), sort of wishing I was there.'' And he will be again, Singleton vowed. After returning to Bermuda in a couple of weeks, he plans on spending the off-season training and raising money for a new sled to take him into next year's World Cup campaign and beyond.

The polite kid from Southampton is getting lots of help. A trust fund has been set up by his family in Bermuda and another one, by a grateful US tourist, has already accumulated over $300 in Massachusetts.

His story also made him somewhat of a folk hero in Japan, as camera crews and screaming fans followed his every move. It didn't help that that IBM filmed a commercial with Singleton practising atop a car roof with a Bermuda beach as a postcard backdrop.

"That's just the Japanese way, to root for the underdog,'' an appreciative Singleton said.

An underdog he was, not only because of his warm-weather upbringing but particularly after his original sled was demolished in a crash during training and he had to bring in a vintage model from Taiwan two weeks before the Games.

Given all this, Singleton said he was "encouraged'' by his combined time of three minutes, 27.095 seconds for his four runs.

"There's no way I could have gone any faster in that sled,'' he said. "It peaked out at 125 kph. I was pleased that I took it to its maximum; that's the fastest time anyone could have managed.'' The sled's rounded steel runners, combined with fresh snow and hard ice, made it "very difficult'' to steer, he said.

But Singleton wouldn't go so far as to say a sled such as that used by the gold medallist, George Hackl of Germany, would have made a difference in the final placings, nor was he concerned over the controversy surrounding Hackl's new golden, aerodynamic boots. Both the US and Canada lodged protests over the attire but both were turned down.

"I'm not at his level by any means,'' Singleton said of Hackl. "He's the best in the world and he showed it.'' Singleton also credited Hackl with improving his techniques on maintaining focus and it paid off in the first day of competition, when "I was more relaxed than I've been all season.

"You could have dropped a bomb next door and I wouldn't have noticed. It was like walking down the road, that's what it felt like.'' So relaxed was he that he didn't want to know his placing; in fact he didn't even find out he was in 28th spot until the start of racing on the second day.

It was on the second day, however, that the concentration began to leave him and Singleton admitted to making "a lot of mistakes''.

His times got gradually worse -- 51.434, 51.579, 51.839 and, finally, a disappointing 52.243 over the 1,300-metre, 15-turn course.

"You're talking two days and four races,'' he said. "It's very difficult to stay focused that long.'' With a final placing of 27th, he still fared better than Bermuda's only other Winter Olympian and Singleton mentor, Simon Payne.

Payne had a productive World Cup career but had placings in the 30s in the 1992 and 1994 Olympics.

But results were only part of his reason for being in Japan, Singleton said.

"I was not only here trying to compete but to sell Bermuda as well,'' he said.

LUGE LUG