Former Canadian marathon record holder Jerome Drayton passed away at age 80 on Monday, February 10.
Drayton won the Fukuoka Men’s Marathon in 1975 to set the national record at 2:10:09, which would last until Cameron Levins ran 2:09:57 in 2018 at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He is a three-time winner of Fukuoka having broken the tape in 1969, 74 and 75. He is also the 1979 Boston Marathon winner.
Drayton finished sixth in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games marathon clocking in at 2:13:30.
Drayton was born Peter Buniak, in Germany. He is of Ukrainian and Russian decent. The family moved to Toronto when he was a child. In 1969, Drayton set the Canadian record, when he ran 2:12:00 in Detroit. He bettered the mark two more times. The 2:10:09 he ran at Fukuoka in 1975 stood as the record for 49 years.
