NZBJJF rankings are determined by points accrued in official tournaments.<\/p>\n
While some athletes may compete only once or twice a year in official tournaments, children tend to compete more, as there are more tournaments for them to enter.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing the highest-ranked athlete means I got the most points in New Zealand from competing in official tournaments,\u201d Owen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I competed, I earned points for how I did. At the end of the year, whoever has the most points is ranked No 1. It means I competed a lot and did well across lots of competitions, not just one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before learning jiu-jitsu, Owen competed in gymnastics and rugby and likes being active and competitive.<\/p>\n
Since joining Gracie Allegiance Ahuriri, he and his brother Ivan have trained and competed under the watchful eye of Jaye Rio, head coach at the club.<\/p>\n
Owen Ranston with coach Jaye Rio at Gracie Allegiance Ahuriri.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwen\u2019s such a good kid to have on the mats, he looks after his training partners and stays focused on whatever the drill or positional sparring game is,\u201d Rio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s also been helping out with coaching in the younger kids\u2019 class, which shows his character as he\u2019s willing to help the other kids by teaching them and ensuring their training runs safely and smoothly. Just an all-round good kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rio said topping the rankings was a massive achievement for Owen, and the club couldn\u2019t be prouder of him.<\/p>\n
Owen\u2019s next goal is to \u201ckeep levelling up\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get better, learn new moves, and improve every time I train and compete. Jiu-jitsu is really complex, but that\u2019s what makes it fun, and my coach Jaye Rio helps me keep learning and challenging myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy long-term goal is to become a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and represent the Gracie Allegiance team as much as possible. I\u2019d also like to compete at big international competitions like the World Championships and keep making my team proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owen Ranston, right, and brother Ivan with their medals from the 2025 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Nationals.<\/p>\n
But he has another clear career ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I grow up, I want to be an All Black.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be a top athlete and work hard at the sports I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over summer, Owen said he was planning to \u201ceat heaps, train hard, and get big like Arnold\u201d, but he was still very thankful for everything his coach and club had done for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve helped me learn, improve, and enjoy jiu-jitsu every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NZBJJF rankings are determined by points accrued in official tournaments. While some athletes may compete only once or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7804,52495,74,1561,15117,27274,25293,1976,118706,5511,117,111,139,69,90,29054,2729,2022,213,223,8469,2726,810,1530,80],"class_list":["post-189582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-7804","tag-11yearold","tag-after","tag-bay","tag-boy","tag-brazilian","tag-federation","tag-hawkes","tag-jiujitsu","tag-just","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-participating","tag-rankings","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-topped","tag-tops","tag-up","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}