Career
He began competing abroad for the first time in 2008 in his early twenties. Working with athletics manager Jos Hermens, he gained a place at the 2011 Amsterdam Marathon and made the third-fastest marathon debut in history with his run of 2:06:05 hours, which was enough for second place behind Wilson Chebet. In his first race of 2012 he came fifth at the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon, but improved his best over the distance to a time of 1:00:38 hours.
A run at the 2012 Chicago Marathon saw him in contention up to the half way point, but he faded into eleventh place by the finish.