Born in Starobilsk Raion in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, he was the gold medallist for the Soviet Union at the 1983 European Athletics Junior Championships, winning in a personal best of . He later set an outdoor best of , jumping in Tashkent in September that year. The best jump of his career came in 1985 at the age of twenty. In Kiev in February he cleared and later set an outdoor best of in Sofia in Bulgaria. He did not compete internationally in the second half of the 1980s but reappeared on the European scene in the 1990 season with a best of and followed with a jump of in 1991. He won his first and final international medal for the Soviet Union at the 1991 Universiade.