Jerome Drayton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerome Drayton (born January 10, 1945 in Kolbermoor) is a former long-distance runner from Canada, who was born as Peter Buniak in Germany. He is a triple winner of the prestigious Fukuoka Marathon (1969, 1975, and 1976), and one of the great runners from the 1970s. His time of 2:10:08, set in 1975, still stands as the Canadian record today (2002).

Drayton started by winning his debut in 1968, with the intention of qualifying for the Canadian Olympic Team for the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. On being told that his time was not sufficient to grant him selection to the Canadian Olympic Team, Drayton partcipated in the Guelph to Dundas marathon on the regional roads of Ontario. By winning this event in a new national record of 2:16:11, the selectors had no other choice but to send him to the Olympic Games. At the Mexico Olympics he was blighted by dysentery and registered a DNF (did not finish).

The following year saw Drayton lower the national record for the marathon to 2:12:00 at the Detroit Marathon on October 12, 1969. Two months later, on December 7, Drayton won in Fukuoka again lowering the national record to a time of 2:11:12. At Fukuoka he defeated Ron Hill of Great Britain, and on these performances was rated No 1 marathoner of the year by the IAAF.

1970 was to be a disappointing year, recording two DNF's at Boston and Edinburgh, he did however win a marathon in Detroit as well as set a new world record on the track for the 10 mile distance with a time of 46min 37sec.

The next five years were extreme years of torment with injuries and blunders adding to a period of time sufficient to put an end to most runners' careers. Due to the mistakes of officials, providing a course 1.000m too long, at the Canadian Olympic Trials Drayton failed to qualify for the 1972 Summer Olympics. He did however win a race during this period in a time of 2:13:13, as well as finish 3rd in Boston in a time of 2:15:40.

In 1975, he stormed back with a victory in Fukuoka with a time of 2:10:08, a new national record, and a performance sufficient enough to earn him the ranking of No 2 in the world by the IAAF.

With 1976 being an Olympic year, Drayton poured all his energy and focus into winning the marathon in Montreal. One week before the event Drayton was to come down with a head cold, leading to further frustrations and a 6th place finish in a time of 2:13:30. With the disappointment of Montreal, Drayton travelled to Japan to contest the Fukuoka marathon against the Olympic champion Waldemar Cierpinski. The two athletes ran shoulder to shoulder for the first half of the race before Drayton asserted his authority to take victory in 2:12:35. This was Drayton's 3rd victory at Fukuoka.

Drayton finally dispelled the ghosts of Boston to win in 1977 with a time of 2:14:46. It must be noted that Drayton after much deliberation was found to have a serious leg discrepancy which became severely effected the further he ran during an event, it is due to this problem and the nature of the Boston course that he was never able to display his full potential at this event.

The leg problems severely hampered his training throughout his career, however he was still able to win 12 marathon titles as well as a Commonwealth Games silver, a 3rd at Boston as well as a time of 2:13:52 at the New York City Marathon.