At the 2012 World's Best 10K he came third, beaten by Sammy Kitwara and Vincent Chepkok. He won the Lisbon Half Marathon for the third straight year, but was slower than previous times (59:34) due to warm conditions and having the flu. A run at the 2012 London Marathon saw him perform better than he did in 2010, but he lost touch with the leading pack after the halfway point and came fourteenth with a time of 2:10:41 hours. He was chosen as Eritrea's flag bearer at the 2012 London Olympics and ran in the 10,000 metres final. He set the pace early on in the race but was defeated in the sprint finish, finishing in sixth place some three seconds behind the winner Mo Farah. After the Olympics he ran at the 2012 World Half Marathon Championships. He dominated the race from just beyond the 5 km point, and won it convincingly in a time of 1:00:19 hours, 32 seconds ahead of the runner-up, Deressa Chimsa. Only two weeks later he entered the Great Birmingham Run, but he appeared tired and finished third in a race where the top three all dipped under Haile Gebrselassie's course record.