GRACE in victory; generosity in defeat. Such attitudes have become rare since so much of sport has become increasingly unsavoury. Rowing remains one of the few activities where the sentiments of sportsmanship are still widespread, even at the Olympic Games, the grandest stage of them all.

After Matthew Pinsent and the rest of the Great Britain coxless four had defeated the Canada crew by 0.08sec in Athens, Pinsent was approached by Barney Williams, the rival stroke to the silver medal-winners. “I just want to thank you for making my Olympic race part of history,” the Canadian said. “It has been an honour to race you.” This, mind you, after being deprived of an Olympic title by the smallest of margins.

Yesterday Williams said: “Matt went out of his way to show that he really respected our performance. He made it clear that we had pushed him to his limit. That made me comfortable. Matthew is an icon of our sport, but personally he knocked those walls down.”

Now Williams has followed Pinsent, a former Boat Race-winner and loser, to Oxford University. Yesterday, the 27-year-old Canadian stroked the defeated crew in one of the two Trial Eights on the course where the 2005 Boat Race will be staged on March 27.

Partly because of a comradeship forged in the fervour of the Olympic final, the pair and their wives have become friends, helped because Dee Pinsent is Canadian.

What matters to Williams is the experience of Athens, the belief that a challenge was met, not that a victory was elusive. He says that the Canada were inspired by the decision last spring to move Pinsent and James Cracknell out of the coxless pairs and into the four. At the 2003 World Championships in Milan, Canada won the world title, making them favourites for the Olympics.

“As an athlete you want to push yourself against the best,” Williams said. “I always look at sprinters. Frankie Fredericks never won, but he was always up against the best sprinters in the world. He got satisfaction from that. At the Olympics we had an opportunity to go up against the best. If Matt had not moved into the four we would never have had the chance to race against him. We were beaten by the best, absolutely. It is the quality of the field that matters, not winning by three or four lengths.”

After taking the world title in Italy in 2003, Williams told the crew that they were “the most amazing group of guys with whom I have ever rowed”.

He repeated that in Athens, telling them that they could hold their heads high because they had given “110 per cent” in the final.

Williams insists that coming to Britain for the Boat Race is not a way of trying to compensate for not winning Olympic gold, emphasising that the decision to take a diploma in Legal Studies at Jesus College was made long before the Games. He regards the event as a springboard for the rest of his sporting career and is attracted by the tradition and “mystery” that surround the Boat Race.

As with the Olympic defeat, he is planning to put a “positive spin” on the loss yesterday, although he admits that he was turning his head so far round to see the rival crew that it hurt. “That is the beauty of losing,” he said. “Hopefully, over the next few days, every guy will move forward. Not only the guys who won, but those who lost.”