The British Broadcasting Corporation has described him as "so poor he lives in the crumbling athletics stadium where he trains".

He won a silver medal in the marathon and a bronze at the 5,000 metre race at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games.

[1] The BBC's article on him moved one reader to send him new training shoes prior to the Beijing Olympics.

The time also improved on his previous national record 2:25:20 set during 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane where he won a bronze medal.

Not only that, his official intermediate time at half marathon shows 1:09:04, which is a new national record.