After coming 32nd and 28th at the 1999 and 2000 World Cross Country events, she began to compete more in road and track competitions. She won the Phoenix 10K race in 1999. At the 2002 African Championships in Athletics she was fourth in the 10,000 metres race and placed 17th at the 2002 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships. The following year she had her best finish at the World Cross Country event, taking tenth place in the women's long race as the fifth Ethiopian woman to finish is a near medal sweep.