Emily Benham is one of the biggest talents in MTBO. In 2008 she won 3 medals at junior EOC in Lithuania. In 2009 she will be among the favorites at JWOC in Denmark June 22^nd-28^th. Here is her story. What is your orienteering background? I started Foot Orienteering when I was 10 (2000), and hated the sport, probably because I was dragged around a forest in the pouring rain with a compass and a map with no idea what to do!! From the age of 13 I took Orienteering more seriously by starting to train a few times a week. I also went on the British Orienteering Federation junior summer tours to Scotland, Norway and Sweden. In 2006 I was still taking orienteering seriously and represent Britain at the European Youth Championsips in Slovenia, where I had average results, nothing outstanding!
In 2007 I was 100% dedicated to running, and trained 12 hours per week which unfortunately saw me overtrain, which meant I felt physically ill with the thought of running and orienteering, so I picked up my old Giant Boulder and went to an MTBO race on the train, about 4 hours from home! I then had a month to train for the European Champs in Italy 2007, where I comfirmed my gut feeling that I was better at MTBO! 2008 saw me focus on MTBO, but I tried to split my time between coaching the British Junior Squad in October, Febuary and July for their training camps. It didn't work out as well as I'd hoped and I ended up doing too much running and non-specific navigation in the 2 months before JWOC 08. You had some amazing results in 2008. What did you do to reach this level? As I said before, my preparation for JWOC wasn't perfect. I went to the O-Ringen and sprained my ankle (again) on the last day as well as getting dehydrated on day 4 which was the hottest day. I did lots of foot orienteering in the spring and then coaching in the summer, so I didn't spend as much time on the bike as I should have. There aren't many MTBO races in the UK (although we are looking at holding a WRE in the next year or so, on one of the amazing areas we have in the south, very close to London) so I went to JWOC having not done any MTBO for a month or so, hence why my results improved throughout the week as I got better at making route choice decisions and stopped making so many mistakes!
Emily Benham,GBR, 1.3 seconds short of a Junior EOC gold medal in Lithuania 2008.	What is your strengths and weakness in MTB-O? I'm an all-rounded athlete, in that my bike strength and speed is good, and my navigation is good, as well as my technical ability on the bike. For me to get better, everything needs to improve!! Confidence is one of my main issues, as I've recently had some bad falls on rocks and roots in the wet and now I lack a bit of confidence just to ride over them.  What is your favorite terrain? Ask me in a year when I've been to some more countries and done a lot more races! I loved the Lithuanian European Championships in September, the sand made the races more physical while the hills where big enough to make you work, but not too small and it was easy to ride at full speed without slowing down much.
What is your favorite distance? Long and sprint. I have the ability to think quickly in the sprint and maintain a quick pace, but I do still make costly mistakes especially near the end of the race, and I love how fast paced the race is, never letting you drift off mentally. But in the long, it comes down to being a good endurance cyclist where even if you take the wrong route choice, if you are quick and execute it well, you can still put in a decent result. What is your best experience with MTB-O? 4th at JWOC in the long, after 2 disappointing races, this one was special but also a huge disappointment to have missed the podium by 20seconds. However, my three medals at the Europeans were the most special, because it is something that I have not experienced before. I was a little upset that a few of the big names at JWOC weren't there, as I was a lot fitter in at EJOC than at JWOC. What does a typical week of training look like (off-season/race-season)? A typical training week off season consists of long intervals on the road, gym work; leg weights, arm weights and core, and long MTB rides on saturdays and long hard road rides on sunday with the university boys! In race season, my weekend rides will get shorter and faster. I will have a sprint, middle and long routes that are based on time, and also do some technique sessions. It is very hard for me to train as much as I'd like as my physiotherapy course at university takes up a lot of time.
Who do you think will be your biggest rivals in competition in 2009? Why? A lot of my competition last year are a year older than me who have all moved up to W21. Having said that, the young Russians Tatina Repina and Svetlana Poverina will be ones to watch after their JWOC wins last year. Also Kaisu Yli-Peltola from Finland, who, like me is in her last year of the junior category and will be wanting some medals. I think I will be keeping an eye on the Czech juniors and the Russians. I never underestimate anyone, and I fully expect to someone to do really well that is an unknown.
What kind of bike do you ride? Scott Scale 15 is my race bike, so that only comes out for special occasions. My Merida Matts TFS 800-D is my training bike, which is in desperate need of a makeover to fix all her squeaks, clunks and grinds! I also ride a Sabbath Silk Road Pro (Sunday) which is my road bike. How is life as a elite MTB-O rider in your country. Do you get financial support and publicity by your orienteering federation? Do you have good training facilities, terrains? I get a scholarship from UK sport, TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) which goes a fair way to helping me with training and paying for races. I have access to the Sport and Exercise Science facilities at Sheffield Hallam University so I can get physiology testing, nutrition and training advice. Last year I was very lucky that British Orienteering paid for my entries and accomodation at JWOC, and I hope they will repeat it this year, but you can never be certain. Since my medals in Lithuania, I am now sponsored by Craft and Ultrasport (a UK Orienteering company) which is fantastic as I get kit to help me train and keep warm on the bike. I have also had some publicity in the British Orienteering magazine Focus, and Compass Sport, both of which enable the sport to be promoted to Orienteers. A friend of mine has set up a magazine called Adventure Sport UK, and I have an MTBO column in there to get MTBO out to people in the UK and hopefully attract some more senior interest and juniors! The magazine covers all forms of adventure sports, such as adventure racing, MTBO, Mountain Marathons etc. I am in the process of setting up emilybenham.co.uk and the website should be live in the next few months. Which races do you plan to ride in 2009 and what are your goals for the season? (e.g. WOC, JWOC, medals) Do you feel any pressure of having to perform as a favorite at JWOC? In 2009 I will be at most WRE's, but I'm too young to hire cars at airports so if anyone can provide lifts then please get in touch embenham1@hotmail.co.uk as your help would be greatly appreciated! So far I have entered the Hungarian WRE and the Denmark Training camp. I am expecting to go to the Portugal races 1-4th May in Ourem, the Swiss and Italian WRE's in May. I really want to go to Russia and the Ukraine but no-one else from team GB is going which makes things a lot more difficult. I will definately be in Pilsen, Czech this summer. Goals for 2009... to medal in JWOC and get a top 15 in the senior worlds in Israel. I love racing under pressure, thinking on your feet and reacting quickly. My best race of 2008 was possibly the EJOC sprint where Gaelle Barlet started 1 min behind me. I was leading the race until the last 400m where I made a crucial mistake, in the end losing by 1.3 seconds. I race well in all conditions, and I make sure I never let things get to me, early start, late start, pouring rain or 30degree heat, they are things outside my control so there is no point getting flustered about them.