Sapporo Half Marathon
He gained an athletic scholarship as a teenager to train and study in Japan. In 2003 he ran bests of 13:38.70 minutes and 28:13.34 minutes for the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, respectively. He also ran at the Sapporo Half Marathon that year and came eighth in a personal best time of 1:03:16 hours. He improved his 5000 m best to 13:29.18 minutes in the 2004 season. He improved this further in 2005, running 13:18.21 minutes. He had two consecutive wins over the distance at the Oda Memorial in 2006 and 2007.