She made her international return at the 1999 European Cross Country Championships and helped Romania to the team silver alongside Constantina Diţă. Her efforts were principally focused on cross country over this period: she won the Fukuoka International Cross Country in 2000 and ran in both the long and short races at the 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, finishing 46th in the long race and 21st over the shorter distance. The following year she won both the Chiba and Fukuoka races in Japan at the beginning of 2001, going on to place fifteenth in the short race at the 2001 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. After taking the national title in the half marathon, she ran at that year's World Half Marathon Championships and came 22nd in the rankings. She also competed on the Japanese road circuit in 2001 and was third at both the Sapporo Half Marathon and Kyoto Half Marathon.