Every law has its exception, and momentarily I am recalling the emptied stands at Rio’s Olympic Stadium last summer after the main event, or events, had given way to lesser competition or medal ceremonies.

But by and large, athletics fans don’t leave the arena early in the manner of so many football fans on days when things are not going their team’s way.

Athletics fans don’t ritually punctuate the run-up of javelin throwers from rival countries in the manner that football fans verbally accompany the run-up of opposing keepers as they take a goal kick – a rising noise culminating in four-letter word abuse.

Athletics fans don’t have a tendency to invade the competition area or hurl seating into it if their favourites are beaten to the medals, or fail to qualify for their finals.

Athletics fans don’t have a tendency to want to beat each other up, or at least be seen to be wanting to beat each other up, like so many snarling Pavlovian dogs conveniently ignoring a gap in the fence.

While covering the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade earlier this month, I was on my way downstairs to make an enquiry at my hotel desk when I heard the unmistakeable sound of civilised murmuring and beheld a lobby thronged with the newly-arrived, hardcore travelling band of British Athletics supporters. And found I was on my way back upstairs.

As a demographic of the sport’s following, it was, in one sense, deeply concerning in that there was an overwhelming preponderance of older people. That said, it was not without younger members – and it is also the case that travelling with the main group was not the method of choice for those younger followers who had chosen to come out to Serbia.

What can be said is that you would have to go a very long way to find a group of sporting followers more knowledgeable about or dedicated to their sport, albeit that the same would be true in terms of finding a group more likely to spend the whole of breakfast waxing wroth over the arcane provision of air conditioning in their rooms.

It would not be true to say that athletics supporters do not resort to booing on occasions. But having covered athletics on and off for more than 25 years at local, national, continental, world and Olympic levels, I am hard pushed to recall those occasions.

Once, on a weekend that one remembered as if it were a nightmare from which you had thankfully woken up and realised was not true, the civilised rank and file of British athletics supporters turned ugly.

The occasion was the 1997 National Championships and Trials held at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium. It was being televised on Channel 4, which had just signed a four-year deal with the British Athletics Federation, and the presentation of the event in the stadium outraged the regular fans with its excruciating attempts to be Cool. It didn’t help that neither of the two main presenters appeared to know anything about the sport.

Five years earlier, the Montjuic Stadium in Barcelona had reverberated with the sound of whistling and booing as Morocco’s Khalid Skah won the Olympic 10,000m title having received what many felt was unfair support from his team-mate Hammou Boutayeb. When the Kenyan leader Richard Chelimo and Skah lapped him towards the end of the race, Boutayeb accelerated to move ahead of the Kenyan and effectively check his progress for three laps before Skah burst into a lead he held to the line.

Then, and during the following day’s medal ceremony, there was certainly an unpleasant atmosphere – although most would agree that, right or wrong, it derived from noble motives.

When I think of the quintessential image of the full-on athletics supporter, however, my mind goes back to the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, before it was rebuilt in 2007. The crowd to the right of the cramped and antiquated press seating gathered around the bend where the finishers slowed to a halt after passing the line. The noise these fans created, with those at the front thumping the advertising hoardings, echoed back from the low metal roof above and actually buzzed in your ears. It was like being at Plough Lane – a small stadium with a huge capacity for noise. And it was glorious, like witnessing a football crowd with all the unpleasant tendencies drained out but with all passion remaining.

This Sunday, at the Kololo Independence Ground in Kampala, another glorious gathering of athletics followers is in the offing for the International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships, where Kenya will attempt to wrest the initiative back from their rivals Ethiopia in the team events, as their star performers Geoffrey Kamworor defends his men’s individual title.

A mixed relay event will not be the only novelty at the 42^nd running of this IAAF’s event. An initiative by the respected Kenyan journalist Elias Makori has made it possible for almost 500 supporters to make the day-long journey to Kampala in a series of sponsored buses.

“I started a campaign to have bus-loads of fans driving from Kenya to Kampala to watch the WCC,” Makori told insidethegames. “This proposal has really gathered momentum and as far we have eight buses of 50 fans each.

“We have never had travelling fans in athletics in Kenya, but my idea has now launched a ‘Barmy Army’ of sorts.”

The buses will travel from eight different Kenyan regions.

Athletics Kenya recently appointed a committee to mobilise support for Team Kenya which will be captained by world record holder in the 10 and 15 kilometre road races Patrick Komon.

“While individuals sponsoring buses have the first option of selecting the fans to take the ride to Kampala, we are appealing to more individuals and corporates to avail more buses so that we cheer our team to glory in Kampala,” the committee said in a statement.

When they reach Kampala, the Kenyan fans will divert to make a donation at the Missionaries of the Poor Home through a partnership with Kenyans living in Kampala.

Already a number of Kenyans in Kampala, part of the “WaKenya Pamoja” group, have collected food, clothing, books and other donations to be presented to the home as part of the celebrations of the Championships.

The Kenyan travelling fans have also been requested to purchase whatever they can to offer as a donation to the home for underprivileged children and adults which currently has a population of 450. After the donation, the Kenyan fans will be treated to music and a barbecue in Kampala during their overnight stay ahead of the action on Sunday.

In truth, there’s nothing barmy about this army. They are the vanguard of a sane and admirable group of sporting followers.