Strong arms of the law

PETER DRURY/Waikato Times

BODY BUILDER: Constable Donna Haddon gets in some training for the inaugural Police and Emergency Services Body Building Championships.

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Scrambled egg whites, steamed broccoli coupled with plain, unseasoned chicken breast. It is hardly restaurant fare, but it is what Cambridge police constable Donna Haddon has been living on lately.

She has devoted four months to training for the inaugural National Police and Emergency Services section of the PakiPaki Bike Shop Coromandel Bodybuilding Classic at Thames on October 25.

Along with the diet she has followed a physically demanding training regime, working out up to three times a day to compete in the novice figure section of the classic.

The 30-year-old mother of two said Cambridge police station workmates had been very supportive, although they had stuck with their carbohydrate-laden diets.

"I haven't inspired any of them (to enter) yet."

The chance to train with and compete against police mates was one of the reasons for getting involved, she said.

"It's really hard, all the training and what you have to do ... but I'm now the fittest I have ever been."

Competition organiser, Waikato Highway Patrol Senior Constable Willie Walker, said the two events had attracted between 60 and 80 competitors.

An avid bodybuilder for nine years, he decided to merge his two biggest passions body building and emergency services into one dual event for police, Corrections Department, Customs, St John and fire service staff. The "mainstream" and emergency services divisions would be judged separately, with the winners to compete against each other for an overall prize.

- © Fairfax NZ News