YouGov survey puts athletics ahead of football and tennis when it comes to which sports the British public finds most thrilling to watch

Athletics has been voted the most exciting sport to watch among Brits, according to a YouGov poll.

That puts it ahead of football and tennis when it comes to which sports the British public finds most thrilling to watch.

Last November YouGov Omnibus asked the UK population about 17 sports, with respondents indicating whether they found each one very or quite boring, very or quite exciting, or neither boring nor exciting.

Athletics came out top, with 47% of those to have watched it voting the sport very or quite exciting.

This compares with 43% of votes for football and tennis, 41% for rugby union and 36% for gymnastics.

Golf was voted the most boring sport to watch with 70%, while 28% of respondents said they found athletics boring.

In an August 2016 YouGov poll ahead of the Rio Games, athletics was voted the sport that Olympics fans were most looking forward to watching that year, with 62% placing it in their top five favourite sports.

As AW reported last year, athletics scored another win over football in January, with more people tuning in to watch the Simplyhealth Great Edinburgh XCountry on TV than the live third round FA Cup tie between Manchester United and Reading televised at the same time.

With an average of one million people switching on, the Great Edinburgh XCountry was the most watched sports programme for almost the entirety of the 2hr 15min broadcast.