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New Zealand wrestler Brahm Richards is hindered in his preparation for the Commonwealth Games by a stolen car and passport.
You suspect the thieves were lucky that Brahm Richards didn’t catch them in the act.
Because while he’s a pleasant 25-year-old, he’s also a Commonwealth Games wrestler, and wouldn’t exactly have been the best person to be crossed stealing his car, and with it, his passport, on the eve of his departure to Birmingham.
You also wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of the New Zealander’s first round opponent now when the men’s 65kg freestyle event kicks off on Friday night (NZ time) at Coventry Arena, that’s the extra irritation running in the Auckland fighter’s veins.
Anthony Au-Yeung/Photosport
Brahm Richards in action at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Richards and the New Zealand Olympic Committee were supposed to fly to England on Sunday evening, but instead they had to struggle to rearrange his travel plans, with getting an emergency passport not even as easy as it should have been.
The ordeal came on Saturday night when Richards, who made his Games debut on the Gold Coast in 2018, enjoyed dinner with friends at the NorthWest Shopping Centre, and when he returned to the central car park at around 9pm, his Mazda Atenza was nowhere to be found. to be seen among about 50 other cars.
“I thought I was going crazy, you know when you forget where you parked your car,” he said.
“I was like, ‘I swear I remember it parked here,’ and I looked around and I saw some glass in my parking lot, so I was like, ‘Oh s…’.
Richards reported the theft to the police, who had CCTV footage from a camera directly above the car.
“I’ve probably parked my car there 10 times before, but as you know West Auckland is getting a little shady with the ram raids and car thefts and stuff like that at the moment,” he said.
“We looked around a bit, but at 9pm we couldn’t do much. But the gaslight was on too, so they wouldn’t have gotten very far.”
But while the car, which he’s owned for a few years, was a great asset, it was Richards’ already packed carry-on luggage for the flight that turned out to be the big problem, in some wrestling gear, a laptop, but, most importantly, his passport.
So when he needed to request an emergency, Richards arrived at the office around 8am on Sunday but was told there was a computer malfunction and to come back for an appointment at 2:30pm instead.
Fortunately, after calling NZOC officials on Saturday night to let them know about his ordeal, at least they had already managed to push his flight back 24 hours to 5:00 p.m. Monday.
AARON WOOD/STUFF
New Zealand will send 232 athletes to the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“They were informed straight away and were the first to send me new flights this morning, they were working from the UK so they were up last night.
“Everything will go according to plan, it will only be a day late.”
Still, the passport drama alone costs about $800.
“I hope there will be some way of insurance” [covering that]but it is what it is, I have to pay it now to get it, then worry about it,” said Richards, whose parents travel to support him, their flight is on Tuesday.
Richards started wrestling at the age of nine and has won multiple National and Oceanian titles. For the past few years, he has trained at City Kickboxing with UFC fighter Kai Kara-France.
He said his preparation for Birmingham had otherwise been good, in hopes that his hard work would pay off for the day, while at least he remained in good spirits over this rather uncomfortable hiccup.
“I’m sure we’ll be laughing about it soon.”