China's Xiang Liu clutches his ankle during the warm up prior to the first round of the men's 110m hurdles.
China's Xiang Liu clutches his ankle during the warm up prior to the first round of the men's 110m hurdles.

Sport

China star fails to start hurdles

Liu Xiang's dream of defending his Olympic title on home soil has ended after an injury forced him to hobble away from the track.

BEIJING // Liu Xiang's dream of defending his Olympic title on home soil ended today when an injury forced him to hobble away from the track before his first-round heat in the 110 metre hurdles. China's world champion, the host nation's best hope of an athletics gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, was clearly out of sorts and grimaced in pain as he went down into the blocks. After a false start, he stumbled forward for a few paces obviously hindered by the injury to his right leg before walking away and leaving a packed Bird's Nest stadium in stunned silence.

"Liu Xiang has two injuries, one to his Achilles and one in his leg. One of the injuries is an old injury," his tearful coach and mentor Sun Haiping told a news conference. "It's the end of the Achilles tendon in his right foot," he added. "He will be back for sure." The China athletics team's head coach Feng Shuyong said the 25-year-old Liu had sustained the injury in training on Saturday. "This morning he felt the pain intensify," he said. "Even though he felt the pain he decided to compete in the first heat.

"Liu would not withdraw unless the pain was intolerable and there was no other way out." Along with basketball player Yao Ming, Liu is China's favourite sportsman and there was a huge weight of expectation on him to repeat his triumph of 2004, when he became his country's first male Olympic champion on the track. "I just saw him outside and he is very disappointed," Feng added. "We have done everything we can.

The son of a Shanghai lorry driver, Liu became a national hero overnight when he matched the then world record to win Olympic gold in Athens in 12.91 seconds four years ago. After a 2005 season where he struggled with injury and only managed a silver behind France's Ladji Doucoure at the World Championships, he stormed back in 2006 to set a world record of 12.88 in Lausanne. Victory in Osaka last year gave him his first world title and further ramped up the expectation that he would win gold again in Beijing.

Cuba's Dayron Robles, who qualified from his heat on Monday morning, took Liu's world record with a run of 12.87 seconds in June. Liu's preparations for the Games were disrupted by a hamstring injury which forced him to withdraw from a meeting in New York on May 31 and he had not competed in public for more than two months. *Reuters

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”