THE Catholic College Bendigo intermediate girls’ athletics team is celebrating international success after winning gold at the International School Sport Federation World Schools Cup in Poland.Madeline Lawson (400m), Brigette Dillon (hurdles), Sophie Taylor (100m) and the CCB relay team took out their events at the international event at Bydgozez.The team’s impressive results, which also included a third place finish to Madeleine Everly in the 800m, as well as notable performances from Celine Mountjoy and Ebony Whiley, earned CCB fifth place overall, behind schools from Turkey, Finland, Taiwan and China.Speaking to the Bendigo Advertiser from Poland, Dillon said winning gold at the World Schools Cup was a terrific experience.“The atmosphere at the event is just amazing. You feel like when you get older, this is what you want to do,” she said.“In my event (hurdles), there were a couple of heats and I came out with the best result and had the win.“It was an amazing experience to win there.”Dillon said that Sophie Taylor’s gold medal-winning performance in the 100m was also a highlight.“I video-taped Sophie’s race so her mum could watch the whole thing,” she said“We actually thought the Chinese girl was going to come back, but Sophie held on and won it.”Competition aside, Dillon said the best part of the World Schools Cup was mixing with the 17 countries involved in the tournament.She said learning the culture and language of her international counterparts was a memorable experience.“There were so many highlights,” she said. “It’s been good mixing with people from other countries and we’ve also been trying to learn their languages because we are all going to travel over the next week or so.”CCB coach Paul Rance, who joined the team in Poland, said all six girls should be proud of their performances.“The girls were outstanding and they all performed very well. It was an excellent result for all six girls,” he said.Rance said the pinnacle of the girls’ performance was the relay win on the final day of competition, in which the CCB girls pipped the Finland team in the final straight.“It was a ‘Swedish Relay’, which means there are 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m legs,” he said.“The relay team also won and that was a magnificent run, and they were two seconds faster than the time they ran at the Australian Championships.“They had a great battle with the Finland team, who caught up on the last lap, but Maddie Lawson was really strong in the straight and was able to pull away.“Brigette had the team in second place after the second leg and then Sophie ran a great 300-metre leg to get to the front and then Maddie was so strong and brought it home in the 400 metres.”