Nigeria’s Ezinwa Comes On Fast in 100 : Mt. SAC Relays: He beats top-ranked Raymond Stewart in 10.20 seconds with tremendous second half of race.

Davidson Ezinwa is not ranked among the top 10 100-meter sprinters in the world. Nor is his name to be found in an extensive world list provided by Track & Field News.

Space, though, definitely will be reserved for him this year.

The Nigerian sprinter found an extra burst of speed in the last 30 meters of the 100 Saturday in the Evelyn Ashford Invitational of the Mazda Mt. San Antonio Relays in Walnut.

He beat Jamaica’s Raymond Stewart, who was ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100 last year.

Ezinwa’s winning time of 10.20 seconds was aided by a wind reading of 3.70 meters per second.

No matter. His acceleration brought a gasp from the crowd on a clear day.

Ezinwa and his twin brother, Osmond, compete for Mt. San Antonio College along with another Nigerian sprinter, Victor Nwankwo.

They were part of a formidable 400-meter relay team that chased a strong Texas A&M; team featuring Andre Cason, the world’s sixth-ranked 100-meter sprinter.

The Aggies won in 39.16 seconds with Mt. SAC second at 39.32.

Davidson Ezinwa, 18, claims the world junior record at 10.05 seconds. However, the mark was established in an uncertified meet in Nigeria without a wind reading.

He also ran a wind-aided 10.05 in finishing second to Britain’s Linford Christie--who was ranked No. 4 in the world in 1989--last January in the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand.

Ezinwa wasn’t surprised that he beat Stewart. He said he had beaten him in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Games.

“My start today was not that bad, but it wasn’t that good, either,” he said. “The guys on both sides of me left me in the blocks.”

Stewart was one of those guys, but he finished third. Derwin Hall of the University of Texas was second at 10.29.

“In the first 50 meters I’m not all that good,” Ezinwa said, “but I come on strong in the last 50 meters.”

Ezinwa, who plans to run for Azusa Pacific, grew up in Udi, Nigeria. He said he originally trained for the marathon, but that distance wasn’t for him.

“I used to watch videotapes of Carl Lewis,” Davidson said. “I thought if I trained hard, I could run like him.”

For sure, he has emulated Lewis’ usual explosive finish.

In other events, Robert Reading won the 110-meter high hurdles in 13.38 seconds; Pauline Davis, the former Alabama sprinter, won the women’s 100 in 11.16 seconds; Arizona State’s Lynda Tolbert won the women’s 100-meter hurdles in 12.99 and Suzy Favor of Wisconsin won the women’s 800 in 2:01.95.

All of the times were wind-aided with Reading benefiting from a reading of 10.96 m.p.s.

Later in the evening, Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli, who competes for Riverside Community College, lowered his own national junior college record in the 5,000 meters with a time of 13:25.20.

Morceli took the lead with four laps to go and then pulled away from Iowa State’s John Nuttall with a sprinter’s burst in the final 100 meters of the race. Morceli’s record was 13:41.71.

Reading, the former USC hurdler who was the NCAA champion last year, is another fast finisher.

“I have terrible reaction time at the start and, after my first step, I’m standing straight up,” said the 6-4 Reading. “By the first hurdle, everyone was ahead of me by a step.”

However, Reading ran down his competition, including Arthur Blake, who was second in 13.49 seconds.

Reading, 22, is among a new wave of hurdlers, along with Blake, Tony Dees and Britain’s Colin Jackson, who will be challenging established stars such as world record-holder Roger Kingdom, Greg Foster and Tonie Campbell.

While other older hurdlers are marking time for the important meets in June and the summer European schedule, Reading is constantly competing.

“I’m not that experienced,” he said. “The others can run 13.4 even when they’re out of shape.”

Reading is a combination technique and speed hurdler. He’s being coached by Jim Bush, the former UCLA track coach who is now an assistant at USC. Bush has developed many great hurdlers.

Reading’s best time is a 13.19 effort in the NCAA meet at Provo, Utah, an altitude site with a favoring wind.

Track Notes

Andre Ester, who formerly competed for Northeastern Louisiana, won the long jump with a wind-aided mark of 27-4 1/4. Ohio State’s Joe Greene continued his quest to break the school record, a venerable mark of 26-8 1/4 set by Jesse Owens in 1935. It was the world record at the time. Greene finally bettered it at 26-11 1/4. However, he had an aiding wind of 6.66 m.p.s, so it’s unacceptable for record purposes. . . . Randy Barnes, the Olympic silver medalist in the shot-put, will be among the featured performers in today’s invitational section. Barnes also plans to compete in the Jack in the Box Invitational May 20 at Drake Stadium.