Top 5 Canadian running droughts

After Andy Murray captured the Wimbledon title last Sunday, he ended one of the longest droughts in sporting history by becoming the first British man to win the storied tennis tournament since Fred Perry in 1936. The good people at Flotrack mused about athletics droughts, so we decided to chime in with a top-5 countdown of some notable Canadian running droughts.

#5: Canadian sub-1:02 half-marathon

14 years

Jeff Schiebler remains the only Canadian to have broken 1:02 in the half-marathon, and he pulled off the feat two years in a row in Tokyo in 1998 and 1999. Simon Bairu came close in 2010 with a 1:02:08 in Philadelphia, and more recently, Dylan Wykes and Reid Coolsaet ran 1:02s.

#4: Sub-10:00 for a Canadian in the 100m

14 years

There was, of course, Ben Johnson’s subsequently disqualified 9.79 at the 1988 Olympics, but Donovan Bailey became the first Canadian to “legally” break the 10-second barrier – his 9.84 at the Atlanta Games was a world record at the time. Bruny Surin was the last Canadian man to break 10 when he equalled Bailey’s 9.84 with a silver medal at the World Championships in 1999.

#3: Top 10 finish at the Boston Marathon, men

27 years

Canada’s Stephanie Hood finished 10^th in the 2008 Boston Marathon, but the top-10 drought is much longer for the Canadian men. Art Boileau placed 2^nd in 1986 with a 2:11:15 finish. Rob Watson was actually leading the 2013 edition at certain points, but couldn’t quite break the men’s drought after fading to 11^th place in 2:15:33.

#2: Canadian women’s marathon record

28 years

No Canadian woman has yet managed to top Silvia Ruegger’s national marathon record of 2:28:36, set in 1985. Lioudmila Kortchaguina ran a 2:29:41 at the Ottawa Marathon in 2006 shortly after gaining her Canadian citizenship. Nicole Stevenson has run a 2:32:56 and now Lanni Marchant and Krista Duchene are knocking on the sub-2:30 door with Marchant’s 2:31:50 last year and Duchene’s 2:32:06.

#1: Canadian men’s marathon record

38 years

It’s almost unbelievable that Jerome Drayton’s Canadian men’s marathon record of 2:10:08 still stands from his Fukuoka victory in 1975. Many have tried to break it in recent years and many have fallen just short. Dylan Wykes came the closest with his 2:10:47 at the 2012 Rotterdam Marathon. Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis have also run agonizingly close with 2:11 performances. Many thought 10,000m stars Jeff Schiebler and Simon Bairu would smash the mark in their debut marathons, but both failed to extend their theoretically equivalent track times into the 42.2K distance.

What did we miss? Let us know your favourites.