U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Neal Handles Competition in 100 Meters Easily

So much for technological training advancements in track and field.

All Henry Neal apparently needs is a friend with a fast bicycle.

Neal won the men’s 100-meter race in 10.22 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Festival on Sunday, routing a decent field at the University of Minnesota’s Bierman Track Stadium.

The 19-year-old from Greenville, Tex., raced even with Lee McNeil and Tony Lee before pulling steadily away in the last 50 meters. McNeil was second in 10.39 and Lee was third in 10.40.

Though the time was off the 10.15 he ran at the Texas high school championships in May, the fastest time ever by a high school sprinter, Neal deemed it acceptable.

Considering the circumstances, it was better than that.

For the past month, a 10-speed bike has been Neal’s only competition during training sessions at Greenville High.

After school let out none of Neal’s friends seemed willing to subject themselves to the ego-beating of running with the nation’s fastest high school sprinter.

“They’d say, ‘No, I’m not going to run with you because I’m not going to let you blow me away,’ ” Neal said. “I had to race that 10-speed to get in shape. That’s the only way I had to train.”

Those workouts likely will be getting a little more high-tech from now on.

Among those in attendance was Mel Rosen, U.S. coach for track and field for the 1992 Olympics.

“There is no doubt that he’s a bright young prospect,” Rosen said. “He surprised me winning by as much as he did. There were some good sprinters in that race. It was a clear-cut win.”

With it came a measure of redemption.

Last month, in The Athletics Congress championships at Cerritos College, Neal failed to make the 100-meter final.

In his semifinal heat, matched against a field that included Carl Lewis, Neal led at the 50-meter mark, then faltered badly.

“I got out in front and it seemed like I was racing against high school people again, so I wasn’t really pushing it,” Neal recalled on Sunday. “I was just running real easy. Then, next thing I know, here comes old long legs.”

Neal was so disappointed, he said the TAC meet would be his last race of the year. He changed his mind a few weeks later.

“I had to come to this meet to prove I still had it,” Neal said. “When I went back home, everybody said, ‘Oh, you got beat.’ I didn’t want to go out on a losing (note).”

Back home in Greenville, a town an hour’s drive northeast of Dallas, Neal is known as Little Ben and Superman.

He earned the tag Little Ben because his muscular build is similar to that of sprinter Ben Johnson, whose 100-meter world record was taken away because he had used steroids.

Neal, who is 5-feet-8 and 165 pounds, said he doesn’t mind the comparison but that his physique comes naturally.

“I do a lot of pushups and situps,” he said. “Not much weight-training.”

Until about five years ago, Neal said, he was the runt of his neighborhood.

“I was like . . . OK, I was a nerd, put it that way,” he said. “I was real skinny. I had big legs but I didn’t look at all like an athlete.”

Running was a neighborhood activity.

“We always ran in the street,” Neal said. “We’d wait until it got cool at night, and everybody would take their shoes off, get on the street and run. We set up relays and everything.”

Neal was the star.

But not Henry. His older sister, Ella.

“She used to beat me bad,” Neal said. “I was all skinny and she was kind of musclebound. I finally beat her when I was in the seventh grade. I knew right then I must be getting a lot faster.”

Neal could have used similar competition in high school in order to improve his times.

“It’s hard when you’re running out there by yourself. It doesn’t help you really,” Neal said. “When you’re out 20 yards in front of everybody, you’re not getting anything out of it.”

Out of the blocks quickly from his outside position on Sunday, Neal shot a glance to his left.

He saw McNeil in the middle of the track and Lee farther inside.

Then, in a flash, he remembered the lesson he had learned in the TAC meet.

This was not a Texas high school race.

Several strides later, he looked again. No McNeil. No Lee.

“It was easier and easier as I was going toward the line,” Neal said. “Everyone was just fading back.”

Usually a slow starter in the 100, Neal says his best race might become the 200 meters.

How fast could he go?

“That’s hard to tell,” Neal said. “I haven’t really been training for it. I did a 20.3 in practice. But that was against the bike.”