Jerome Drayton of Toronto, Ontario, the 1977 Boston Marathon winner, passed away on Monday at the age of 80 according to the Associated Press. It was reportedly an unexpected death during complications from knee surgery.
Drayton’s winning Boston Marathon time in 1977 was 2:14.46. He beat Veli Balli of Turkey by 0.98 seconds. Balli had a second place time of 2:15.44. Drayton remains the last Canadian man to ever to win the Boston Marathon. Jacqueline Gareau of L’Annonciation, Quebec won the women’s Boston Marathon race in 1980.
At the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Drayton won the silver medal. He had a second place time of 2:16.14. The only fastest runner in the men’s marathon race was Gidamis Shahanga of Tanzania, who had a winning time of 2:15.4. There were two Canadians on the podium in the men’s marathon at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. The other was Paul Bannon of Toronto, who won the bronze medal with a third place time of 2:16.52.
Drayton was born with the name Peter Buniak, and changed his name to Jerome Drayton after moving to Canada from Germany when he was 11 years old. His personal best marathon time was 2:10.09. That transpired at the 1975 Fukuoka Marathon in Japan, and was a Canadian record for 43 years. Cam Levins of Campbell River, British Columbia broke the record with a time of 2:09.25 at the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon. In 1978, Drayton was induced into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
I have written Drayton’s biography for the Canadian Encyclopedia. For more information on this Canadian sports legend, please click here.
