Farah confident he can beat the might of Africa in 2011

Mo Farah is back in a Great Britain vest this afternoon for the first time since he completed the 5,000m-10,000m double at the European Championships in Barcelona last July.

The 27-year-old captains a GB team in the revamped feature race in the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country at Holyrood Park.

The 8km men's event has become an international team one, featuring Great Britain, the US and a Europe Select squad. There will be no Kenyans or Ethiopians for Farah to face in his first race of 2011, a year in which he will have to contend with the might of East Africa's distance runners at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. The meeting does include three high quality Kenyans – Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop, former world 5,000m champion Eliud Kipchoge and Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Brimin Kipruto – but they all compete in the men's 4.2km short race.

Ukrainian Sergey Lebid, the nine-time European cross country champion, will start as the main threat to Farah in the international race but the Europe Select team also features Ayad Lamdassem and Jesus España, the two Spaniards whose home challenges the Briton memorably overcame to win the 10,000m and then the 5,000m in the heat of Barcelona last summer. Not that Farah is resting on his laurels.

"It was a great year but I have to forget about it," he said. "We're in 2011 now. It's a World Championship year and I'm excited about that. I'm getting closer [to the Kenyans and Ethiopians] and I believe I can be up there with them."

Farah spent six weeks before Christmas training in Kenya and the benefits were clear to see on New Year's Eve when he contested the Bo Classic 10km road race at Bolzano in Italy, finishing runner-up in a sprint finish with Imane Merga, the Ethiopian who was the top 5,000m man on the IAAF Diamond League circuit last year.