PAARL se eie uncle Douglas Green has shown that age is nothing but a number after powering his way to a sensational second-place finish at the World Masters Bodybuilding Championship in Singapore.
And the 60-year-old bodybuilder reckons he didn’t just hold his own against the competition – he was in better shape than many of the younger athletes on stage.
“Ek het hulle net so dopgehou en gedink: Wow! Ek lyk dan beter as baie van die jong mense,” the oom told Daily Voice.
The competition took place in Singapore on Sunday, where Uncle Douglas flexed his way to a silver medal for entrants under 75kg.
The veteran spiertier says athletics and fitness “is in die Green-familie se bloed”.
“I started boxing at the age of 10 and won several Western Cape provincial awards. I also played some rugby and was part of Craven Week during my primary school days,” he said.
He also played for Paarl’s Evergreens Rugby Club for a few years before starting his bodybuilding journey.
But his entry into bodybuilding was almost by accident.
He recalls walking into a bodybuilding competition at the Cape Town City Hall about 20 years ago.
Green wysed “I just wanted to use the City Hall’s toilet, not knowing that there was a bodybuilding competition taking place.”
He says a man he came to know as Jason Kleinsmith looked at him and asked if he would be willing to partner with him for the competition.
“Ek het die man van g’n kant af geken nie. Ek wou net weet waar die toilet is,” Green says.
“I told him that bodybuilding was never something I had considered doing, but if he could give me a Speedo, I would join him.
“And that is where it all started.”
And what a start it was.
“That day I won second place. I was very confident and I think it was the nippie gin I had earlier.”
For the past 20 years, Green has been part of the Western Province Natural Body Building Federation.
He has competed in several bodybuilding competitions locally and abroad, but says this latest achievement is extra special.
“I have always landed in third or fourth place. This is the first time I came second.
“As die Here se wil, wil ek volgende jaar eerste plek behaal.”
How he is still in such good shape at the age of 60 is volgens die uncle “geen geheim nie”.
“I eat healthy. I gym five days a week. On Saturday mornings I do cardio.”
