At the start of 1995 he ran at the Tokyo Half Marathon and recorded his second-fastest ever time, coming second to Brazil's Eduardo do Nascimento in 1:00:47. At the 1995 World Championships in Athletics, he placed thirteenth in the 10,000 metres. A few months later, he won the New York City Marathon for a second time running, finishing in a time of 2:11:00. He made his Olympic marathon debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games and finished in sixth place. In 1997 he was fifth in New York and fourth in the Boston Marathon. The year after, he ran a lifetime marathon best of 2:08:56 at the Boston race, but this was only enough for sixth place.