Career
Born in Nazret, he took up running seriously in 2004 when he moved to Addis Ababa with the hope of emulating the success of Haile Gebrselassie. He was among the leaders of the Xiamen Marathon on January 2010, but fell back at the 35 km mark, eventually taking fifth place. He returned to the race the following year and took third place in 2:09:58, his second sub-2:10 clocking.
In his second run of 2011 he finished in the top five of the Rotterdam Marathon, again running under two hours and ten minutes.
He was one of six men to go under the previous course record at the Ljubljana Marathon in October, but did not make the podium with his fifth-place finish. He died in a car accident on January 11, 2013.