He had his first individual global success at the World Championships in Athletics. At the 1999 World Championships he won the bronze medal in the men's steeplechase. He also won the bronze at the 1999 IAAF Grand Prix Final. Two years later, after his Olympic medal performance, he attended the 2001 World Championships and improved to the silver medal. He returned to the Olympic stage at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but he did not reach the podium on that occasion, finishing in eighth in the final.