He has later shifted to the marathon. He competed without finishing at the 2007 World Championships, and finished 41st at the 2008 Olympic Games. He ran a personal best time of 2:11:43 hours in October 2008 at the Istanbul Marathon and improved further to record a time of 2:10:15 hours at the 2009 Ljubljana Marathon, where he was edged into second place in the final stretch by Kenya's William Biama. He won the Düsseldorf Marathon in April 2010, setting a course record and personal best time of 2:08:32. He performed poorly at the Lake Biwa Marathon in March 2011 as he finished two minutes behind the top 15 athletes. His best run of the year (2:12:07) came at the Gyeongju International Marathon, where he finished in fourth place. He competed in the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing in 25th place.