Jerome Drayton

Jerome Drayton

Personal information
Nationality	Canadian
Born	(1945-01-10) January 10, 1945 (age 79) Kolbermoor, Bavaria, Germany
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Men's Athletics
Event	Marathon
Club	Toronto Olympic Club
Medal record Commonwealth Games 1978 Edmonton Marathon
Updated on 22 October 2018.

Jerome Drayton (born January 10, 1945, in Kolbermoor, Bavaria, Germany) is a former long-distance runner who competed internationally for Canada. He was born as Peter Buniak in Germany, and came to Canada in the mid-1950s when his mother moved there after divorcing his father.^[1] He reportedly based his new name on two famous sprinters he admired: Canadian former world record holder Harry Jerome and American Paul Drayton, former world record holder in the 4 × 100 m as part of the American relay team.^[2] However, Drayton has denied this, stating that he chose Jerome because it was a name he had always liked, and Drayton because he thought the two names fit well together.^[3] A prominent runner in the 1970s, when he was for a time ranked as the top marathoner in the world, he won the Fukuoka Marathon in 1969, 1975, and 1976, as well as the Boston Marathon in 1977. His Canadian men's national record time in the marathon of 2:10:09, set in 1975 at the Fukuoka Marathon, stood for 43 years until broken by Cam Levins in October 2018 with a time of 2:09:25 in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.^[4] Drayton had held the Canadian record since 1969, after breaking the then record of 2:18:55 set by Robert Moore a month earlier.^[5]

History

Drayton was born as Peter Buniak on January 10, 1945, in Munich, Germany, to parents of Russian-Ukrainian background. Having been born as the Second World War was coming to an end and extreme poverty was widespread, Drayton and his parents had traveled to Germany from Poland aboard a cattle train. Drayton’s parents eventually divorced and his mother, who had custody of him, moved to Canada and then brought Drayton over to Toronto in November, 1956, when he was 11 years old. When he took up running in high school, Drayton’s single-mindedness quickly became evident and it wasn't long before he won top-calibre events. After winning the Ontario high school championships for Mimico High School, he was recruited to the Toronto Olympic Club, where he began working with national distance running coach Paul Poce.^[1]

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Canada
1969	Motor City Marathon	Detroit, Michigan	1st	Marathon	2:12:00
	Fukuoka Marathon	Fukuoka, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:11:13
1973	Canadian Championships	St. John's, Newfoundland	1st	Marathon	2:13:27
1974	Boston Marathon	Boston, Massachusetts	3rd	Marathon	2:15:41
1975	Fukuoka Marathon	Fukuoka, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:10:09 PR
1976	Olympic Games	Montréal, Canada	6th	Marathon	2:13:30
	Fukuoka Marathon	Fukuoka, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:12:35
1977	Boston Marathon	Boston, United States	1st	Marathon	2:14:46
	New York City Marathon	New York City	2nd	Marathon	2:13:52
1978	Commonwealth Games	Edmonton, Canada	2nd	Marathon	2:16:14
1979	Boston Marathon	Boston, Massachusetts	11th	Marathon	2:14:48
	National Capital Marathon	Ottawa, Canada	1st	Marathon	2:18:05

See also

• Canadian records in track and field
• List of winners of the Boston Marathon

References

External links

• A history of the Fukuoka International Marathon Championships
• Canadian Olympic Committee
• Collections Canada

This page was last edited on 11 January 2024, at 05:09