BURY AC men’s team captain Byron Edwards continued his stunning season when he added the Tokyo Marathon to his list of international marathons on Sunday.

He is in the form of his life having recently set lifetime bests in distances from 5k to the half marathon.

However, even the more optimistic of Edwards' colleagues would not have believed he would knock a massive 12 minutes off his best time for the distance.

His finishing time of 2hrs 40mins 18secs is a marvellous achievement, especially given the cold and wet conditions.

While he expressed his frustration for just missing out ducking under 2:40, his time currently ranks him 19th in the UK for the distance this year.

Closer to home, it was a night of celebration for Bury’s cross country runners on Saturday as they picked up trophies at the Red Rose Cross Country League presentation evening in Horwich.

There were first places for Oliver Makinson in the under-20 men's competition and Jim Ardin in the V45 category.

Katie Geelan took second in the V45 women's category and Ben Coop was third in the senior men’s competition, the best performance by a Bury AC senior man for several years.

Ben Forrest took third in the under-17s men’s category, one place ahead of Stefan Kalmbouka.

Lucy Alcock was fourth in the under-20 women’s category, and Jake Allen took fifth in the under-15s boys'.

Bury’s senior men and women were both excellent second team finishers.

Earlier on in the day, five Bury athletes competed in the high-quality Podium 5k races in Barrowford.

There were personal-best times for all the Bury athletes, Luke Harreld taking 43rd position in the A race in 16:11, followed by Josh Birmingham 57th in 16:37 and Gary Crowshaw 73rd in 17:16.

In the B race, young Oliver Donnelly ran brilliantly to finish fourth in 17:19 and Katrina Conroy was 10th woman finisher in 20:31.