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The cricket players aren't the only local athletes struggling to find their feet after getting promoted to play with the big boys. Three-time Olympian Patrick Singleton is finding it tough sledding after being allowed to compete on the World Cup circuit for the first time. The FIBT dropped a requirement that countries had to have two athletes to compete in the World Cup because it was deemed discriminatory against smaller nations.

Singleton started the season well by finishing 13th in an America's Cup race in Calgary in November. One of his two runs placed him in the top 10 with a ninth place finish. The next day he was 17th at the same venue.

Singleton's first World Cup race was at the end of November in Calgary. He finished 31st out of 35 sliders, two seconds behind winner Jeff Pain of Canada.

The Olympian was then 32nd out of 32 on the Park City, Utah course in the next World Cup race on December 7. Singleton was 2.31 seconds behind winner Zach Lund of the U.S.

The World Cup circuit moved to Lake Placid for the next race in the series and Singleton was last in a field of 34. He finished 3.49 seconds behind Lund, who won his second consecutive race.

In all three World Cup races Singleton has struggled with his start times. In each of those races he's been about .300ths of a second behind the fastest sliders and in the bottom three of those out of the gate.

There are two world cup races slated for January - one in Ngano, Japan and the other in Igls, Austria - before the world championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland at the end of the month.[[In-content Ad]]

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