For the 2004, he switched to compete in the plain 3000 m and 5000 metres events but experienced little success: he did not make the final at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships and in the men's 5000 m at the 2004 Athens Olympics he only managed eleventh in the heats. He was invited to compete in the 3000 m at the 2004 IAAF World Athletics Final, but finished dead last – some seven seconds behind the slowest other runner. The 2004 European Cross Country Championships demonstrated that his abilities could be better suited to longer distances as he finished fourth in the men's 9.64 km race.