Jerome Drayton, who finished sixth at the Montreal Olympics, won the 1977 Boston Marathon and held the Canadian men’s marathon record for 43 years, has died.
“Jerome remains the most recent Open Division Men’s Champion from Canada, and set the stage for generations of world class Canadian marathoners to follow in his footsteps,” Boston Athletic Association President Jack Fleming said.
Drayton also set a world record on the track for the 10-mile run in 1970 in 46:37.6, and was the top Canadian in the men's marathon at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
He won Detroit's Motor City Marathon in 1969 in a North American record time of 2 hours, 12 minutes, and shaved 47 seconds off the mark in winning the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan later that year.
Three years later — his fifth try in Boston — he pulled ahead when eventual four-time winner Bill Rodgers began to tire in the 77-degree heat and gave Canada its first victory in the race in three decades.
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