By ROB BRODIE -- Ottawa Sun
  Maybe it's just experience talking.

 But to hear Adrian Richardson tell it, there's almost no chance the words 'last chance' will freak him out tomorrow in perhaps the biggest race of his career.

 The 23-year-old from Burritt's Rapids is in Montreal, preparing for the event that will go a long way toward deciding whether he'll reach his dream of paddling in the kayak singles (K-1) 1,000-metre final at the Sydney Olympics.

 ALL OR NOTHING

 Anything less than a victory in tomorrow's Canadian canoe/kayak Olympic trials would crush those hopes.

 "Physically, I'm definitely capable of winning," said Richardson yesterday from Montreal. "I just have to be mentally prepared to race."

 Notice that Richardson didn't use the word win. It's something he failed to do at the first set of trials last month on the 1996 Olympic course at Lake Lanier in Gainesville, Ga.

 He felt drained after fighting off the effects of a cold for 4-5 days before the race, and didn't finish the final.

 That created his current predicament: Richardson must not only win tomorrow, but beat the first race winner, Mihai Apostol of Halifax, in a raceoff next week.

 Another local competitor, Carleton Place's Ryan Cuthbert, is in the same boat. He was second on Lake Lanier.

 Pressure? Richardson figures he's already dealt with the worst of that.

 "I've definitely gone through the pressure stage ... I felt I had to win that first race, but that was pressure I was putting on myself," he said.

 "After losing, a lot of that pressure disappeared. Now I know what it's like not to finish first. (Tomorrow) I'm going to go out with the idea to just have my best race."

 Richardson earned Canada a spot in the K-1 1,000 event in Sydney by recording one of the best two times among Americas zone paddlers at last year's world championships in Milan, Italy. He was Canada's only medal winner in men's kayak at last year's Pan Am Games in Winnipeg.

 All this made Richardson the favourite going into the qualification process. Now he has to do it the hard way.

 "It was upsetting for me not to be the winner in the first race," said the Victoria-based paddler. "Nationally, I'm not used to not winning.

 "It makes me want to win this time even more."