Patrick Singleton admitted he threw caution to the wind in Saturday's World Cup luge event in which he crashed but still managed to finish.

Singleton finished in 52nd place on the same track which will be used for next year's Winter Olympics.

And despite disappointment over the crash, Singleton felt his chances of a successful Olympics would not be harmed by the weekend's experience.

"I pushed it too hard,'' said Singlton, who yesterday moved on to Lake Placid which is hosting the next World Cup event this weekend.

"I had some good qualifying times and maybe I was a little bit over-confident.

"I crashed, rolled over and came off, but I walked over the line so I would still pick up one World Cup point.

"Of course, it was disappointing to crash, but I think a lot of good will have come from it. It's good to get the experience a year before the Olympic games. I know this track a lot better now.'' Singleton said the track had raced even faster than in training during last week, because the early race time meant temperatures were lower and the ice was harder. The cold, clear weather produced fast times and the track record fell time and time again. In total, 31 lugers bettered American Tony Benshoof's previous track mark of 45.595 seconds.

"It's just about as fast as it can get,'' Benshoof said of the track.

Singleton said he was not sure whether he and his International Luge Federation team-mates would enter this weekend's race in Lake Placid.

But they will be training with one eye on the week after when Singleton will take part in the World Luge Championships in Calgary, Canada.

Patrick Singleton