‘Nah nah, they still want old guys’

When a police officer told Brian McFarlane he should join the police, the 50-year-old bodybuilder champion scoffed.

But the sergeant insisted: ‘Nah nah, they still want old guys’.

Constable McFarlane, crowned Mr Natural Universe in 2017 and Mr New Zealand Bodybuilding Champion in 2002, was the eldest member of his wing to graduate in September.

After 30 years of pumping iron, it’s a novelty to feel like a rookie again. The muscle-bound, vegan, fitness fanatic doesn’t look like most men his age, though. ‘‘I actually don’t feel 50, I feel like 25.’’

In three weeks of frontline policing, some people have mistaken McFarlane for a senior officer, directing queries at him.

McFarlane didn’t have trouble with police college’s physical tests, but running was a change for the weightlifter. ‘‘I’m classed as obese [by BMI scale],’’ he quipped.

McFarlane, who owns Hamilton-based gym Fit Figures, decided to apply after chatting to a policeman who was a member there. ‘‘I thought I’d have a crack and I was encouraged all the way.’’

Joining the thin blue line has been a long-harboured dream of McFarlane’s. ‘‘You could go right back to an ad on TV1, I think, back in the old days.’’

The 1990s police recruitment ad, featuring the song He Ain’t Heavy, shows police attending crashes, and breaking up fights at the pub. He remembers thinking, ‘I want to do that’ but, until recently, life was too busy for the father of five.