About Lydia Cheromei Lydia Cheromei (born May 15, 1977 in Baringo District) is a Kenyan athlete. She specializes in long distance running.Early career Cheromei was bronze medalist at the World Junior Championships and won the junior category of the World Cross Country Championships in 1991 at the age of 13. She won Kenyan trials for the 1991 World Championships, but was considered too young to compete in Tokyo. She was at the time coached by Sister Christine Heverin of Singore Girls Secondary School . She was mostly inactive between 1994-1997, since the young runner had allegedly burnt out . She made a comeback but had another three year break until 2004 due to private problems . Middle career Cheromei has three victories (1999, 2000 and 2004) at Saint Silvester Road Race held annually in Brazil. She won the 2004 Zevenheuvelenloop by running 47:02, the second best 15K time ever . In 2006 Cheromei was found guilty of clomiphene doping. The sample was delivered on 24 February 2005 in an out-of-competition test in Eldoret. She received an IAAF suspension from May 2005 to May 2007. Return Cheromei won the 2008 Rotterdam Half Marathon with a course record of 68:35; the previous record (69:13) had been set by herself in 2004 when she also won the event . She had a successful marathon debut by winning the 2008 Amsterdam Marathon and timing 2.25.27 . In the 2009 Rotterdam Marathon she finished 2nd behind Nailya Yulamanova of Russia Her brother Joseph Cheromei is also a runner.