Farah made light work of the underfoot conditions to win the inaugural International Team Challenge 8K with ease at the BUPA-sponsored event in Holyrood Park.

Farah led home the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team to third place behind Europe and USA.

His winning time of 25min 41sec was nine seconds faster than American Galen Rupp who took second, with Ayad Lamdassam of Spain/Europe in third in 25:55 and nine-time European Cross Country champion Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine/Europe fourth in 26:00.

Farah reacted brilliantly to a mid-race surge by Rupp on the course's steep climb to take the lead for the first time.

Double European champion on the track in 2010, Farah recently returned to sea level to compete following a stint of altitude training at the UK Athletics/London Marathon endurance camp in Iten, Kenya, and was delighted with his performance.

He said: "I was happy to win.

"It started off kind of slow and my aim was just to try to stay with the group for the first couple of laps and then wind it up.

"I'm really confident after the way training has gone over the last six weeks and from my New Year's Eve race I knew I wasn't in bad shape.

"The trip to Kenya helped a lot - it's just eat, sleep and train out there and the weather is a lot better than back home."

Behind Farah, Andy Vernon made a great return to form after withdrawing from the European Cross in December with stomach cramps.

He finished an impressive fifth in 26:14 – just 14 seconds behind Lebid, who was representing Europe.