LEWISTON -- Lewiston High School senior Mohamed Noor said Tuesday that someone threw sand in his face not once, but twice, during the New England Cross Country Championships on Nov. 10 in Cumberland.

Earlier reports indicated that only one alleged sand-throwing incident had occurred -- in a wooded section of the course and away from most of the thousands of spectators at the event. But Noor, speaking publicly for the first time since the Nov. 10 race, said he also was attacked before the start of the race, which began in an open field amid 270 other runners.

Noor said a man wearing glasses and a green shirt or jacket approached him from behind moments before the start of the race. When he turned around, Noor said, the man tossed what appeared to be sand in his eyes.

"I see the face," Noor told Blethen Maine Newspapers. "I feel in my eyes the sand."

Noor said he tried to call for his coach, Ray Putnam, but with the race moments from starting, Putnam already had left the area to position himself up the course at Twin Brook Recreation Area. Despite the attack, Noor was able to regain his composure enough not only to start the race, but lead it for the first quarter mile.

Noor said he then had sand thrown in his face in or near the first entrance to a wooded section of the course. He said the second attack hindered him so much that he said he had to run for stretches with his eyes shut.

Although he remained among the leaders halfway through the 3.1-mile race, Noor dropped back to finish 124th, suffering his first loss of the season.

Cumberland police confirmed Noor's story of multiple attacks, saying Tuesday they did not release the information earlier because it might have hindered the investigation.

Chief Joseph Charron also said his department sent an e-mail request through the Maine Principals' Association to all 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. Of particular interest, Charron said Tuesday, is the area around Lewiston High's starting box immediately before the race. "You've got to figure somebody has a video of the start," Charron said. "It may show a guy in a green jacket walking there among the kids lined up before their race."

As of Tuesday afternoon, the request had yielded only one repines: a Vermont spectator 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."

Calder can be contacted at 829-6391 or at wecare@cumber landmaine.com.

Noor said the second attack -- he thought it was by the same person, but wasn't absolutely certain - came from his left side shortly after entering the woods.

"I could see nothing after that," he said. "I run while I close my eyes."

Kyle Powers, a senior from St. Johnsbury (Vt.) Academy who ran close to Noor at some point early in the woods and finished eighth overall, said last week he felt dirt or sand hit him in the back of the head near the entrance to the woods.

Cumberland police, after interviewing Powers, said the two incidents may not be related, although both athletes were running the course for the first time and may not have remembered exactly where they were struck.

"Something definitely happened, there's no doubt," said Calder, who declined to describe the medical treatment Noor received in the ambulance after the race. "The sad part is, somebody knows something and hasn't come forward."

Dressed in a neatly pressed brown shirt and tie, Noor spoke Tuesday with occasional interpreting assistance from his friend, and distant relative, Ibrahim Abukar, a student at the University of Maine. Reserved and soft-spoken, Noor speaks with a hint of a British accent, acquired while learning English in his native Somalia.

After immigrating to Lewiston in September of 2006, Noor jumped into mainstream classes at Lewiston High and said he has a grade point average in the 90s. He had played soccer in Somalia, but "I was too new" to try out for the Lewiston team.

Not until he beat a veteran Lewiston runner in a spring gym class -- while wearing unlaced basketball sneakers -- did he come to the attention of Putnam. For two days after the New England championships, Noor said "my eyes were swollen and red."

He said he had trouble sleeping for a few days as well. "After that," he said, "I'm OK."

Sophomore teammate Sadam Abdi said a man in green had approached him earlier in the day, while Abdi waited in line for a portable bathroom, and asked him to point out Noor. Later, as Abdi was preparing to do runouts -- or practice starts -- he saw the man again near Noor. "I seen the guy," Abdi said, "but I didn't see him throw anything."

Both Noor and Abdi said there were many well-wishers near the starting box calling out Noor's name. In their pre-race anxiety and excitement, they didn't pay attention to anyone in particular. Near the end of the race, when Abdi caught up to Noor, he said he knew something was wrong and stayed with his teammate through the finish line. Noor said he had stopped twice to walk during the race.

Immediately after the race, Noor received treatment in an ambulance, then again at a Lewiston hospital after returning home.

On Tuesday morning, as the season's first snow fell on his adopted city, he shook hands with a visitor and headed off to school for indoor track practice.

What would he ask, should he ever meet the man in green?

"Why do it? Why do this to me?"