As a 20-year veteran of the sport and a member of the national team since 1988, Giles is accustomed to facing new challengers, and young buck Maxime Boilard has emerged as a legitimate threat.

 Boilard won both the C-1 1,000 metres and the C-1 500 metres late last month at Lake Lanier in Georgia. That means Giles, 28, must now finish first in the next set of trials, May 13-14 in Montreal, to force a race-off with the 21-year-old from Lac-Beauport, Que.

 "I lost the first race and it's basically a two out of three" to qualify for the Sydney Olympics, Giles said Thursday at a news conference announcing a partnership between Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling and the region's National Sports Centre.

 "This has been my dream, to go to the Olympics, for the last four years. Obviously, I would be pretty upset if I didn't make it.

 "It has been a while since I have been in this kind of a situation and I'm finding it kind of exciting."

 Boilard, regarded more as a 500-metre specialist, won that race handily at Lake Lanier, after squeaking out a victory in the 1,000 metres a day earlier.

 Boilard has made it a mission to defeat Giles and has been gaining confidence since nearly beating him in the 500 metres last season.

 But Giles, considered one of paddling's top ambassadors, has the experience of two Olympics behind him and remains calm despite the do-or-die situation.

 "Ever since I won the first time, I've always known that someone is going to come along and knock me off," said Giles, who won gold in the 1,000 metres at the 1998 world championship in Szeged, Hungary.

 "Every couple of years, there will be a good, young guy come along and I'll think, 'Well, maybe he's going to be the guy.'

 "It hasn't turned out that way so far, but maybe Max will be the guy. You never know."

 "He's just coming up and he's going to be really good, but I still think I can beat him."

 Coca-Cola's decision to jump in with support for the region's elite athletes comes at a crucial time for Giles, who has dedicated the past four years to qualifying for his third Olympics.

 "I'm kind of running out of money and this is really going to help out," said Giles, an electrical engineering student at DalTech.

 "There are certain things that I can do now with a little bit of extra help that I wouldn't be able to do before."

 Regardless of the outcome in Montreal, Giles plans to continue to paddle competitively after Sydney.

 "This is something I love to do and I have a couple of more years of school left," Giles said. "As long as I can stay on the national team, then I can get that paid for.

 "Whenever I give a speech to kids, I always quote John Wood, who won a silver medal in '76. He said what he loves the most about paddling in a race is winning, but that's not what he loves most about paddling.

 "I feel the same way. If I go up there and I don't win, I'll just come back and keep training."