FANS of track and field now have access to a new book which recalls the exploits of four pioneer Jamaican female sprinters on whose shoulders current day achievers rest.

Appropriately named 4Runners, this début book by Jamaican-born journalist Desmond Palmer expertly blends human interest, history and sport to illuminate an era of track and field spanning 30 years, reaching back to 1948.

Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson, in his foreword, celebrated the work as being timely and described it as “unique and compulsory reading” for anyone who seeks to learn where it all began and how to maintain consistency of purpose. He said these women blazed the trail on which so much of our fame has rested.

Merlene Ottey was the first Jamaican woman to win an individual Olympic medal (bronze) in 1980, but before her there were Cynthia Thompson, Una Morris-Chong, Marilyn Neufville and Rosie Allwood-Morrison. They represented Jamaica well even though they did not win any Olympic medals.

Today, these women are featured in 4Runners. And even if you were not around in their heyday, you will be enthralled by their accounts of the grit, determination, as well as the heart and soul that went into the making of Olympians during that era.

In their own voices the women shared their varied experiences, both on and off the field. Their narratives shed light on so many happenings, such as when star athletes from the country would burn up the stadium tracks barefooted, or when one had to take a banana boat to London, a journey of 14 days, or the time when a 17-year-old took the bold decision to run for her country of birth, even though she lived in England. There are so many nuggets to be found in this book.

The former athletes recalled some of the pain they endured in their quest for personal and national glory. And disappointingly, we also heard how some were quickly forgotten once they got off the track.

Palmer can be described as a serious track and field enthusiast who thought nothing of thumbing a ride to Kingston and back to Santa Cruz to watch the annual Boys’ Championship at the National Stadium.

After eight years of evidently high-quality research and interviews, Palmer was able to combine his passion for sports with his sense of history to produce compelling portraits of these four athletes.

It is compact and it’s easy to read these 100 plus pages.

One of the cool features of the book is a Q&A segment testing track and field knowledge.

Patterson suggests that Palmer should follow up this work by finding other global stars of yesterday and producing similar historical vignettes so they can be suitably recognised.