Sunday, November 18, 2007
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| By Derek Davis, Portland Press Herald via AP |
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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An alleged attack by a spectator on Maine's top high-school cross-country runner during the New England high school championships is spurring discussion about athletes' safety during competitions.
The chief booster for the Lewiston High School cross-country team thinks more attention should be given to security following an incident in which Mohamed Noor reported that someone threw a sandy substance in his face during the race.
In an ideal world, more people would monitor the courses during races, said Paul Driscoll, whose son is a teammate of Noor's.
"Mohamed is a world-class runner, and if this could have been prevented it should have been done," Driscoll said. "His chance at being New England champion was taken away from him and it could have been prevented I guess."
Noor was at the front of the pack during the 73rd New England Cross Country Championships before the incident as the runners entered a wooded area of the 3.1-mile course in Cumberland. Afterward, he fell back and struggled.
Previously undefeated, Noor stumbled across the finish line in 124th place, vomited and was treated for more than an hour in an ambulance. He also received treatment for his eyes at a Lewiston hospital that night, Driscoll said.
Police continue to investigate the incident, but say they haven't been able to prove or disprove the claim. Police at first suggested Noor may have been targeted because he was a favorite to win the race. Others believe he was targeted because of his ethnicity. The Somali immigrant is black and Muslim.
Crowd control at cross-country meets is far different from other sports that are played on clearly defined fields, such as football, basketball and baseball.
Cross-country runners cover miles of terrain over fields and through woods, often alone. Races can be chaotic, especially at regional meets with hundreds of runners and hundreds of spectators jockeying for good viewing positions along the course.
At the Cumberland race, volunteers with two-way radios stood at designated places to direct runners or provide assistance if needed, said William Savage, executive director of the Council of New England Secondary Schools Principals' Associations, the governing body for interscholastic sports at the New England high school level.
"Generally speaking, we could see runners all the time," Savage said. "But not close enough to see someone throw something in someone's face."
The incident brought back memories for Gerry Chester, a cross-country coach in Connecticut. At a dual meet in 1992, students from an opposing school waited in the woods and attacked members of Chester's team from Ellis Tech, he said.
Chester, who now coaches at another Connecticut school, said his students had to be taken to a hospital with broken noses, broken ankles and other injuries. Six students from the other school were criminally charged, he said.
In another cross-country race, a teenager collapsed and died in Belfast but his body wasn't found for nearly two hours after he failed to appear at the finish line. The boy, who died of cardiac arrhythmia, was eventually found in some tall grass next to the course.
After that incident, in 2003, the Maine Principals' Association began using 4-wheelers at regional and state cross-country meets to assist runners in distress, said Dick Durost, the MPA's executive director.
The MPA, which sponsors the state's high school sports tournaments, plans to review the incident in Cumberland, as well. But some are skeptical of how far officials can go in terms of protecting athletes.
Short of posting volunteers every 50 yards alongside a running course — something that would require more than 100 volunteers — Chester said it's virtually impossible to guarantee the safety of every runner every foot along the way.
"If we get to the point where we have to put somebody every 50 yards on a 3.1-mile course to make sure the runners are safe, then something is wrong with our society," he said.
Bad behavior at sporting events has been on the increase in recent years, said Dennis Phillips, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi who is an expert on sporting event security.
Much of the spotlight has been on abusive fan behavior toward sports officials or coaches. But athletes aren't immune.
Monica Seles, the former No. 1 women's tennis player, was stabbed in the back by a deranged spectator during a match in Germany in 1993. In 2004, a spectator attacked the front-runner in the marathon during the Olympics in Greece; the runner ended up finishing third.
It's easier to protect athletes in arenas, ballparks or stadiums, where fans can be screened and fan behavior monitored, Phillips said. But it's difficult for sports such as cross-country running, Nordic skiing, marathons and bike racing.
"The only way you could control security (at cross-country meets) is to bring them into an enclosed
Source: AP, Nov 19, 2007