By CHRIS STEVENSON -- SLAM! Sports  PENRITH LAKES, Australia - As Caroline Brunet stood and answered questions about her silver medal win in the womenÕs K-1 500m Sunday, canoeist Maxime Boilard stood beside her, his arm draped comfortingly over her shoulder.

 If there ever was a picture which summed up the weight of expectations, it was this.

 Brunet, the three-time world champion, trying hard to hold her emotions, to explain her disappointment at finishing second.

 About an hour earlier, Boilard, a 22-year-old Olympic rookie, who, like Brunet, comes from Lac-Beauport, Que., couldnÕt keep the smile off his face after finishing fourth in the menÕs C-1 500m.

 It was an incredible result in very difficult conditions for Boilard who only started competing at the senior world level last year.

 While Brunet probably lost a gold medal because of her inability to deal with the extraordinarily difficult conditions in winds that gusted up to 55 km/h, Boilard showed the ability to adapt.

 ÒIÕm happy. IÕm disappointed not to win a medal, but to finish fourth makes me happy,Ó he said. ÒItÕs the best I could have hoped for.Ó

 In what will go down as his coming out party, Boilard showed a tremendous finishing kick Sunday. He was in sixth place at the halfway point of the race and hauled in two boats over the final 250 metres.

 ÒBefore the race we talked about saving his energy,Ó said coach Frederic Jobin. ÒThe guys who always leave quick are missing the energy at the end.Ó

 The race was won in an upset by HungaryÕs Gyorgy Kolonics in two minutes, 24.813 seconds. Russian favourite Maxim Opalev, the reigning world champ, won the silver while the bronze went to Andreas Dittmer of Germany.

 To show you how strong the headwind was, the winning time was 34 seconds slower than DittmerÕs time in winning one of the heats to start the competition.

 To show you how difficult the conditions were for some of the competitors, Czech legend Martin Doktor, the reigning Olympic champ and silver medalist at the 1999 world championships, finished in eighth place.