He won the San Blas Half Marathon at the start of 1983 with a time of 1:04:40 hours. He emerged as a top level runner shortly afterwards at the 1983 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, narrowly defeating both Carlos Lopes and Some Muge to become the world champion and take the team gold medal with Ethiopia. All three athletes recorded the same time in the closest ever finish at the competition. He became the second African man to win the title after Mohamed Kedir, who won the previous year. Later that year he competed in the 10,000 metres at the inaugural 1983 World Championships in Athletics. He ran a personal best of 27:49.30 minutes in the heats, but was a little slower in the final and placed tenth, just behind his team mate Kedir.