WHAT on earth is Carl Fogarty blathering about?

His comments about the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award (LET, December 12) just show what a poor sportsman he is and that he didn't deserve to win.

He claimed that the viewers' poll was fixed and that he had expected to win because "everybody has been going on about it." Is this man delusional?

By "everybody," I expect he means his own circle of friends and his Italian employers. I don't know of anyone else who would seriously entertain the idea that the participant in a minority sport would poll more votes than five young men of world renown and are household names the length and breadth of the nation.

Admittedly, Fogarty is a world champion and his achievements are very impressive and it is also good to see a local lad do well and help put Lancashire on the map.

But, surely, much of his success is down to the simple fact that his motorbike is faster than the rest! I seem to remember Foggy having a rather lean time when he wasn't riding for Ducati. Lennox Lewis - the eventual winner - is a supreme athlete who is gracious in both victory and defeat and has achieved something that no other Briton has done for over a century in becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

An indication of the high esteem in which Lewis is held is that he was the one chosen to present the legendary Muhammad Ali with his Sports Personality of the Century award.

Foggy should take a leaf out of Lennox Lewis' book and act like a gentleman instead of whinging like a spoilt child.

The purpose of the BBC award ceremony is to award the outstanding personality in British sport, but I'm afraid with all the personality and charisma that Fogarty can boast, I think he'd have a tough job winning a goldfish.

A champion on a fast motorbike he might be, but a champion of the people, never.

R JEEVES (Mr), Cheltenham Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.