Lewiston runner speaks about sand attack

LEWISTON – A Lewiston High School runner had sand thrown in his face twice at the New England Cross Country Championships, before and during the race, he said in his first public comments since the Nov. 10 competition in Cumberland.

Mohamed Noor, Maine’s Class A cross country champion, told the Portland Press Herald that a man wearing glasses and a green shirt or jacket approached him before the race started and tossed what appeared to be sand in his eyes.

Noor gathered himself and even led the race for the first quarter-mile, but somebody – he thinks it was the same man – threw sand in his face again at or near the first entrance to a wooded section of the course, he said. That time, he had to run for stretches with his eyes shut and ended up finishing 124th, suffering his first loss of the season.

“I see the face,” Noor told the newspaper. “I feel in my eyes the sand.”

Cumberland police continue to investigate the incident.

Police Chief Joseph Charron said his department sent an e-mail request through the Maine Principals’ Association to all of the participating New England schools, asking cross country coaches to pass along the request to runners and parents for video or still photographs of the event.

As of Tuesday, police had gotten only one response, from a spectator from Vermont who sent 386 photos.

“I pulled out five [shots] of Mohamed and one of a gentleman dressed in green,” said Lt. Milt Calder. “I thought I’d have 20 [responses] by now and I was hoping for a hundred.”

Noor’s account is in line with an earlier report that he was attacked twice.

A few days after the race, Lewiston High School Athletic Director Jason Fuller told The Associated Press that Noor said the man threw something at him both before and during the race.

Noor received treatment in an ambulance immediately after the race and again at a Lewiston hospital after he returned home.

If he ever meets his attacker, Noor told the Press Herald, he would want to ask him why he threw the sand.

“Why do it? Why do this to me?” he said.