Australia's Ariarne Titmus alongside USA's Kathleen Ledecky reacts after taking gold in the final of the women's 400m freestyle.
Australia's Ariarne Titmus alongside USA's Kathleen Ledecky reacts after taking gold in the final of the women's 400m freestyle.
Australia's Ariarne Titmus alongside USA's Kathleen Ledecky reacts after taking gold in the final of the women's 400m freestyle.
Australia's Ariarne Titmus alongside USA's Kathleen Ledecky reacts after taking gold in the final of the women's 400m freestyle.

Sport

Olympics

Tokyo 2020: Titmus strikes first in battle with Ledecky to take 400m freestyle gold

Ledecky has been the dominant force in women's swimming but in the first of three head-to-head showdowns with Titmus at these Games it was the Australian who triumphed

Reuters

July 26, 2021

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Australia's Ariarne Titmus defeated five-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky of the United States to grab gold in a thrilling women's 400m freestyle final on Monday.

Britain's Adam Peaty repeated his gold medal success from Rio in the 100m breaststroke while Canadian Maggie MacNeil stormed to victory in a close women's 100m butterfly.

Ledecky has been the dominant force in women's swimming but in the first of three head-to-head showdowns with Titmus at these Games it was the Australian who triumphed with a superbly timed swim.

The American was 0.66 seconds ahead at the halfway point but Titmus had closed that gap to 0.16 seconds by the 300m turn and grabbed the lead at the 350m mark and never looked back.

"I can’t believe it, I’m trying to contain my emotions," said Titmus, who praised her rival for raising the bar in the sport.

"I thanked her, I wouldn’t be here without her. She set this incredible standard. All credit to her for the swimmer she is.

"In the race I tried to stay as composed as I could and I can’t believe I pulled it off," she added.

In the women's 100 butterfly China's Zhang Yufei lead at the halfway mark with MacNeil trailing in seventh but the Canadian produced a brilliant turn to power away from her rivals and pip Zhang by five one-hundredths of a second.

Australia's Emma McKeon was not far behind, taking bronze just 0.13 behind the winning time.

"It was incredible. I touched the wall and heard my name so I think I did something good," said the Canadian, who won the event at the 2019 World Championships.

"I don't have words right now. I don't think it will sink in for a little while," added MacNeil, who also won silver on Sunday as part of Canada's 4x100m freestyle team.

Sarah Sjostrom, the gold medallist in Rio and world record holder, finished seventh, 1:32 off MacNeil's time.

The Swede, competing at her fourth Olympics, had surgery for a broken elbow suffered falling on ice in February, leaving her out of the water for months.

"I did everything I physically could, I couldn’t do anything more ... I needed to be ice cold," she said.

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Yahya Al Ghassani's bio

Date of birth: April 18, 1998

Playing position: Winger

Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda

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Classification of skills

A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation. 

A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.

The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000. 

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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.”

Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest

Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.

Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.

Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.

Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.

Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.

Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia

Updated: July 26, 2021, 6:07 AM