Nathan van Berlo and Patrick Dangerfield have made flying starts to the New Year, splitting the honours in the endurance testing on Adelaide’s first day of pre-season training for 2012.

A characteristic burst of speed saw Dangerfield edge out van Berlo, junior long-distance runner Sam Martyn and former best and fairest winner Richard Douglas in the first of the two five-minute runs, which measure the distance a player can cover in a five-minute period.

The players then repeated the test and van Berlo demonstrated why he’s regarded as the fittest player at West Lakes, blitzing the field to finish more than 150 metres ahead of the next group, which again included Dangerfield and Martyn, and also wingman David Mackay.

Monday’s result was an improvement for aspiring midfielder Dangerfield, who impressed to take out the first five-minute run in the week prior to Christmas but slipped back to the middle of the pack in the repeat test, which was also won by van Berlo.

Strong distance runners Tim McIntyre, Sam Kerridge and Mitch Grigg and the seven other first-year Crows are in Melbourne for the AFL Players Association Induction Camp, and didn’t take part in the testing on Monday.

Rookie Will Young, who has recovered from a broken fibula, was also excused from the gruelling runs, but ran laps of the Oval.

Adelaide’s next open training session will be at Max Basheer Reserve from 10am on Thursday, January 12.