Holland, who had missed the opening three races of the season, clocked a time of 1 hour 49min 51sec, beating American Katie Zaferes by a slender one second margin.

Reigning Olympic champion Nicola Spirig of Switzerland, competing for the first time in two years, was third and Germany’s Sophia Saller narrowly missed out on a podium spot as she came fourth.

Zaferes’ second place saw her leapfrog compatriot Gwen Jorgensen into top spot on the Columbia Threadneedle rankings after Jorgensen decided not to compete in this event.

“I felt really good in training, but probably just for about the last month or so,” Holland, a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist at Glasgow 2014 said.

“It has been a tough run for me, I have had a lot of injury problems since January so I have watched the last WTS races but I was dying to get out there.

“This day was an experiment to see how fit I was, we thought I would be quite good for a five kilometres, but a 10km might be a stretch, but I felt really great.

“I knew there was not many of us there in the end so I thought I was going to have to dig and I turned around and I was the only one left, so it just seemed to play off in the day for me.”

Zaferes started the race in commanding fashion as she was quickest in the 750 metres swim, and she headed the chasing pack of Brazil’s Pamela Oliveira and Helen Jenkins of Great Britain into the cycling stage.

Bermuda’s Flora Duffy was also in contention early on and the four went into the first of eight bike laps attempting to stretch the gap between themselves and the rest of the field, but Spirig along with American Sarah True managed to keep pace.

At the end of the second lap, a 27-person group had been created as the gap to the leaders had been closed dramatically, and home favourite Mari Rabie demonstrated her prowess on the bike as she came to the fore.

But the likes of Zaferes remained well-placed within the middle of the pack , though it was Spirig who came roaring to the front at the start of the running stage.

It was at this point that Holland, who had kept under the radar for large parts of the race, began to emerge as a serious contender alongside Saller.

The leading group remained together until the Briton unleashed a well-timed kick on the fourth lap and she managed to break away and hold on to claim an historic victory.

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