He came in third at the 1994 London Marathon, then finished as runner-up behind Khalid Skah at the 1994 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Oslo, taking the silver medal. Although he was one second away from victory at the Oslo race, his half marathon time of 1:00:28 was a Mexican record – a mark which, as of 2012, remains the country's best. During the New York City Marathon race in November, he recovered from a wrong turn seven-tenths of a mile before the finish that put him 40 yards behind his countryman Benjamín Paredes. He ran a 5:15 final mile, including the detour, to beat Paredes by two seconds with a time of 2:11:21. The incident earned him the nickname "Wrong-Way Silva".