PEOPLE often express surprise that both myself and my husband are 'not sport's fans.' However, this is not true. What is true is that we are not fans of the ubiquitous sport that is on the TV for at least 10 months of the year, football.

I am however a fan of track and field Athletics and watch avidly all this scant coverage of the sport that occurs on television around this time of year.

However the season is very short; the vast majority of competitions that are shown on terrestrial television, occur between the middle of August and the end of September. For the rest of the year we are offered lots of football and infrequent glimpses of other sport such as tennis during the Wimbledon fortnight, which serve as a welcome interruption to the never-ending diet of football.

I do nonetheless appreciate that football is a very popular spectator sport and I respect people's rights to enjoy the sport of their choice on television.

Consequently, I was dismayed to read (LET, August 28) your reporter John Anson questioning whether the World Athletics Championships warrants prime-time viewing, all week.

Major championships in athletics last about one week, but the Premier League is seen on television from August to June every year and often the World or European Cups are held in the intervening months!

John is obviously not a fan of the sport but comparing it to a school sports day is similar to comparing the Premier League with a local Sunday football league, clearly a ridiculous analogy.

If British athletes are not as successful as other countries, maybe the fact that there is little financial help and even fewer good facilities in this country where world class athletes can train is a contributing factor.

Without this support, I feel that the few world class athletes that we do have are remarkable for achieving so much with so little assistance.

If John was not quite so partisan he would realise that there is plenty of interesting action and competition going on all the evening, but this may not necessarily involve athletes from Britain.

Setting aside John's derogatory comments about a sport for which athletes spend many hours a week training, I would be grateful if he could allow us, the fans of track and field, to enjoy our viewing for one or two weeks a year, in the same way that we respect others' rights to enjoy football for 10 months of the year.

J L BARNES (Mrs), Blackburn (full address received).