LEWISTON – In his first public comments, a Lewiston High School runner said he had sand thrown in his face not once but on two occasions the day of the New England Cross Country Championships earlier this month.

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 Nov. 10 race started in Cumberland 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 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.

On Wednesday, Fuller said Noor has practiced with the school’s winter indoor track team this week, preparing to compete in the upcoming season, and seems to want to put the incident at the Cumberland event behind him.

“He has a smile on his face when I see him. He seems OK,” Fuller said, focused on the season ahead.