Ezinwa Confirms, Loses

by Sieg Lindstrom

Walnut, California, April 17-18

Davidson Ezinwa's incredible 9.91, one week before the Mazda/Mt. SAC Relays and just up the road a piece at the Nigerian's home track, constituted a prologue to the 34th edition of the relay carnival that draws world-class athletes like flies without paying any appearance fees.

Was the Azusa Pacific junior for real, Mt. SAC Relays fans asked? How would Carl Lewis react? Lewis is known to downplay the importance of his races before the main events but this was bound to be an intriguing showdown.

Ezinwa settled into the blocks in lane 3 with Lewis to his immediate right. Flags along the straight rippled desultorily toward the runners, indicating a slight headwind. At the gun, the moderately shorter Ezinwa -- 6 1/2 to Lewis's 6-2 -- got out fast. Lewis, as is usual for him, unfurled less explosively and saw Ezinwa build his lead for 30m or so before he began to close.

As Ezinwa reached 80m, it was clear, barring the miraculous, he would evade Lewis. The only problem for the Nigerian was Lewis's unlooked-for training mate Mike Marsh, who was keeping pace three lanes to Ezinwa's right. Once past the line, Ezinwa exulted and embraced friends. Fans on the backstretch, too, assumed he had won.

The actual victor, as the photo showed, was Marsh. In 9.93 (equaling the 8th-fastest legal race ever), to the 9.96 that confirmed Ezinwa's break- through. Third went to Lewis in 10.12.

"I did expect it this year," said Marsh, previously the owner of a 10.07 PR from 1989. "I probably didn't expect it this early. To say the least, my training's been going really great and I just have to transfer it to the track. It just kind of happened today. I'm very happy."

Marsh moved from Los Angeles to Houston in the fall of 1990 to train with Tom Tellez's Santa Monica TC crew, and he is not one to count his chickens so long before market day in Barcelona. "Obviously it builds my confidence," he added unemotively, "but I kind of have to do it when it counts too,"

Said the vindicated Ezinwa, who had finished 2nd to Marsh in this race a year ago, "In today's race I was paying too much attention to Carl because he was the man to watch out for, and Mike was two guys by my side so I didn't see him."

Lewis was unperturbed, pleased enough with having earlier anchored the Santa Monica relay unit's 37.97, a time never bettered in any month before July.


 In that relay, Marsh, in lane 4, led off, battling Andre Cason of the Goldwin team in lane 1, before crisply handing the baton to Leroy Burrell. The pass showed virtually no extension.

In the 200, later in the afternoon, Burrell appeared way off midseason form as he floundered to 3rd. That didn't stop him from widening relay Santa Monica's advantage against Frank Fredericks of the Mazda team and effecting another conservative pass to Floyd Heard.

One more fast-but-unstretched pass and Lewis stormed home, looking plenty quick. Not visibly quicker, though, than Dennis Mitchell did anchoring Mazda's 38.66.

Mazda's women's 4x1 team of Gwen Torrence, Teresa Neighbors, Michelle Finn and Evelyn Ashford (42.85) not only sped to a victory margin similar to Santa Monica's but also produced a U.S. mark for non-national teams that has only been exceeded by a 1989 LSU quartet at altitude (anchored by Dawn Sowell). It could very well have been '82 from the way Ashford flashed home.

That it is 1992 was evidenced by the 1:32.44 relay work of coach Loren Seagrave's Speed Dynamics crew. The time would have been good enough for an AR, provided the SAC track were painted with 4 x 200 staggers, which it isn't. For an AR you have to run the whole arc in lanes, which this wasn't.

Two names one would not have expected a year ago on a record-quality team, Dyan Webber and Yolanda Johnson, handled the middle legs. More familiar national-champion types Esther Jones and Diane Dixon ran first and last.

For Gail Devers, too, this is a new year. Twelve months ago her Graves disease problems of the preceding three seasons had abated just enough so she could train. For the hurdles. The yield was a No.2 World Ranking.

Here she ran the 100, and blasted away to a 10.95 PR. Hurdles world champion Lyudmila Narozhilenko may well worry when she hears that number until she learns the new math. "The 100 is the equation," said coach Bob Kersee after the race. "Gail was the [1988] NCM champion in the 100m. I've always believed she could be one of our best 100m runners, and the 100-meter hurdles is more of a training factor for her.

"When she's not sharp and she might have a leg situation, I put her in the hurdles so she can continue her world class performance and getting the experience. But I think the key event for her is going to be the 100."



 Romas Ubartas, the No. 1-Ranked discus thrower in 1991, shone on the field after getting the crowd's attention with an event he caused on the track. The imposingly-statured Lithuanian aired a warm up throw over the retaining fence at the far end of the landing area and watched it bounce off the track into the crowded stands.

He followed with five good competition throws of 215-3, 207-0, 213-7, 219-7 and a world leader 223-8. Runner-up Anthony Washington hit his best, a far-back 207-7, in frame 5.

In a meeting of the top U.S. women platter throwers, one-time shot specialist Pam Dukes came out on top for the first time with a PR 195-2.

For distance runners, said Vicki Huber, paraphrasing fellow 3000 competitor Liz Wilson, "Mt. SAC is one of the greatest track/social events of the whole season because everybody just sees everybody you haven't seen in so long."

For example, Huber, who's been away for some years, got to hang out in the 3K with all the projected Olympic Trials heavyweights from her event save Mary Slaney.

John Trautmann, like many distance types, came to the meet in need of a fast time. The '91 TAC 5000 champion specifically needed an Olympic qualifier (13:27.00), the sort of fast time he had been unable to pick up in a short European tour last summer.

Running in 6th or 7th place, Trautmann reached 3K in 8:10.6. "As we went through the 3000, I didn't really think I even had a shot at running 13:27," he said.

Then Mexican Ignacio Fragoso made a quick break to which Trautmann responded, once he saw it was happening, with a sprint down the backstretch.

"He made his move and actually that lap I ran like a 60-second lap to catch up with him," said Trautmann.

"I didn't know I was going that fast, to tell you the truth. I feel like I'm in shape to run, right now, 4 or 5 seconds faster than I did last night, by the way I ran it. And I felt great the last couple of laps, which I'm really happy with."

Trautmann's 57.9 final circuit brought him home the winner in 13:20.19, the fastest time by an American since Sydney Maree ran 13:13.84 in 1989.


From Track & Field News
May, 1992