Lake Biwa Marathon
He stepped up to the full marathon distance in 2003 at the Paris Marathon and recorded the fastest ever time for a débutante—coming in third with a time of 2:06:47 hours. He also set his half marathon best that year, claiming the Lille Half Marathon title in a time of 1:00:52 hours. He ran two sub-2:10-hour marathons in 2004, coming third at the Lake Biwa Marathon and fourth at the Berlin Marathon, and also came fourth at that year's Bogotá Half Marathon.