I got hooked on triathlon in a bird’s nest. Two summers ago, on a blustery evening in Beijing’s Olympic stadium I found myself sitting next to a lean German athlete. 

Noticing his tanned and highly taut shaven legs, I asked whether he was a cyclist. "No, I’m a triathlete," he replied in inevitably flawless English.

After sneaking a quick look at the accreditation dangling from his neck I thought I recognised his name. "Didn’t you win gold on Tuesday?" I asked.

Very modestly, and with a wry smile he replied, "Yeah, I did actually. It was pretty close though!"

Jan Frodeno. Olympic triathlon champion 2008 and a good bloke too.

After years of preparation he had managed to produce a performance when it mattered most, outpacing Canada’s Simon Whitfield and New Zealand’s Bevan Doherty in a thrilling sprint finish.

Although his Olympic experience had finished, Frodeno had come to the Bird’s Nest that night for the privilege of witnessing the world’s greatest athletes do what they do best. Perform at the highest level. 

That’s why I love about watching all forms of elite sport. It doesn’t matter whether it’s athletics, fencing, gymnastics or handball.

To watch the speed, power, endurance and grace that the world’s best are capable of never ceases to astonish me.

So with the fifth round of Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series coming to Hyde Park I jumped at the chance of seeing the best triathletes compete at the venue that will to be used in the 2012 Games.

Over the course of the weekend, 3,000 age groupers had the experience of competing on the flat, fast course but the gulf separating them from the elite soon became very clear. 

Faultless swimming technique in the Serpentine was followed by quick and efficient transitions onto the bike.

After eight rapid loops of the Park, the triathletes somehow manage to overcome their ‘jelly legs’ and run the final 10km at speeds that would not be out of place on the track.

The racing certainly entertained the large crowds around the Park. In the men’s race Spain’s Javier Gomez took victory ahead of 20-year-old Jonathan Brownlee from Britain.

Frodeno took third after the elder Brownlee, Alistair faded in the final 500 metres and required medal assistance when crossing the line.

Yesterday, 21-year-old Paula Findlay (pictured) from Canada snatched victory in the elite women’s race with a decisive burst of pace in the final mile denying Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig and Britain’s former world champion Helen Jenkins.

That's another thing about triathlon. It only became an Olympic event in 2000 so it’s a youthful sport and the boundaries are constantly being rolled back. And I don’t just mean the aerodynamic wheels, compression socks and go faster wetsuits displayed on the stalls around the banks of the Serpentine.

Triathletes competing at all distances are learning, adapting and improving themselves too. 

Britain’s triple world champion Chrissie Wellington seems to break boundaries every time she competes. She broke the ironman distance world record again in the Challenge Roth event last week.

A decade ago most triathletes came from the ranks of very good, but not quite top class single discipline athletes who thought they’d diversify and give multisport a try.

Triathlon feels dynamic because the new generation like Gomez, the Brownlees, Paula Findlay and Australian Emma Moffatt have grown up as genuinely superb all rounders.

Each of them face plenty of hard training over the next two years and this successful weekend has made me eager to return to Hyde Park in 2012 to watch them when the stakes are just that little bit higher.

James Carr is a former Press Association journalist. He is an amateur triathlete and is in training for an Ironman distance event in 2011