Aussies steer clear of Caroline's wake

By STEVE SIMMONS -- Toronto Sun
  Caroline Brunet's reputation precedes her.

 She is so admired in the world of paddling that when the host country Australia took aim at medals it thought it could win, it all but abandoned any shot at gold in Brunet's specialty event, the K1 500-metre race.

 "They've put all their efforts in the K2 and K4,'' Graham Barton of the Canadian Canoeing Association said. "They didn't want to have anything to do with Caroline.''

 But Rita Koban of Hungary does. The 1996 gold medallist is coming off a two-year retirement in search of another medal. Many expect Koban and Josefa Idem of Italy to be Brunet's stiffest challenges for the K1 gold.

 The pairs is more wide open.

 "There's a lot of competition," Barton said of an event where Brunet and Karen Furneaux will battle the Poles, Germans, Hungarians and Australians.

 Canada also has medal hopes in canoe singles, with 1998 world champ Steve Giles, and in the pairs, where Attila and Tamas Buday were fourth in the world last year.