onscious that New Zealand timed its preparations to peak for t

The European Tour and Asian Tour have formalised a strategic alliance after protracted merger talks failed.A significant exchange of playing opportunities has been promised but both organisations -- working from a joint office in Singapore -- will retain brand and logo identities and continue to be managed by separate boards.European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said in a statement on Monday: Following successful discussions over the past year to develop our joint vision, we are delighted to announce this Strategic Alliance which we believe will be of immense benefit to both organisations.We have enjoyed a very strong and prosperous relationship with the Asian Tour over the past 17 years and this formalises that partnership, representing an exciting new era in our association.Ryder Cup vice-captain Thomas Bjorn, chairman of the European Tours tournament committee, had described a merger as the only way forward, but some Asian players opposed the move amid fears of a reduction in their playing opportunities.Speaking last May, commissioner Kyi Hla Han said the Asian Tour would have disappeared in the merger, and he welcomed the diluted partnership approach on Monday.Han said: This is a very positive step forward in our desire to further grow professional golf in Asia and around the world.We believe it will also greatly enhance the careers of our membership, who have embraced this exciting development.We are also confident a greater collaboration between the Asian Tour and European Tour will deliver a stronger product to our partners and appeal to new sponsors to get involved with the game. The future looks very exciting for the Asian Tour and European Tour.Detlef Schrempf Jersey . Belfort (24-10) needed just 77 seconds to down Henderson in the headlining bout of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson" event at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil. The fight served as a rematch of the pairs 2006 meeting, which Henderson won by decision. Carmelo Anthony Jersey .J. Jefferson has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend. http://www.cheapthunderjerseyschina.com/ . -- Charline Labonte couldnt have asked for a better homecoming. Steven Adams Jersey . Jason Zucker and Matt Cooke also scored for Minnesota, which has won five of six. Kuemper made five saves in the first, nine in the second, and nine in the third. The rookies best save came with 2:17 left in the third period when he denied former Wild forward Matt Cullen from just outside of the crease on the right side. Womens Thunder Jerseys . Uniteds eighth defeat of a wretched campaign means Liverpool, which currently occupies the fourth and final Champions League place, could go nine points clear of its fierce rival by beating West Bromwich Albion on Sunday. Charlie Adam scored both of Stokes goals at Britannia Stadium either side of Robin van Persies equalizer, with a miserable day for seventh-place United capped by first-half injuries to centre halves Jonny Evans and Phil Jones that forced them off.Ellia Green has been cutting her teeth as a rugby player for four years in the pursuit of an Olympic gold medal. It has cost her a couple of teeth along the way, too.The so-called fastest woman in world rugby, for a long time Green trained in track and field and had competed at international level for Australia before making a sudden move into the rough-and-tumble sport.Like so many players in the world series-winning Australian womens squad, it was games of backyard rugby with a brother as a child that provided the only real hint about the physical demands of the game.He always tried to get me involved. He tried to tackle me in the backyard, Green recalled of her brother, Mitchell, now 25 and still playing rugby union. It helped. Growing up, we were sort of rough with each other. He told me `You should try rugby, youd be so good at it.That wasnt exactly the unanimous family line. Her mother, Yolanta, wasnt really sold on the idea at first.She was unsure about it -- she was worried, Green said. `Ellia, cant you pick a sport where you cant get hurt?Four years later, by her reckoning, Green has had five operations.Finger surgeries, Ive lost teeth, shoulder operations, she said, running through her catalog of injuries. Thats one thing (Yolanta) was worried about.But above all, she said opportunities like this dont come often. If it wasnt for her, I probably wouldnt have gone on with it.Greens initial contact with rugby sevens was as a driver -- giving her cousin a ride to a Pathway to Gold talent identification tryout in Melbourne in 2012. There were women there from all kinds of sports, and from all over Australia.I wasnt planning on going at all. I was just taking my cousin, Green recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. It was spontaneous. There were 150-200 girls. They only picked two.One of those was Green, who was born in Fiji and raised in Australia.The team has several players drawn from other sports, including Chloe Dalton, who earlier had aspirations to be in Australias womens basketball team, field hockey players Shannon Parry and Sharni Williams, who was a full-time auto mechhanic, and Charlotte Caslick and Alicia Quirk from touch football -- a non-contact form of rugby.ddddddddddddaving a squad of full-time contracted players paid off in the womens world sevens series when the Australians broke New Zealands dominance of the competition,Green made more clean line breaks than anyone in the 2016 world series and scored 17 tries -- fourth on the list for the season -- lifting her career tally to 61. New Zealander Portia Woodman led the try-scoring for the season with 24, followed by Greens Australian teammate Emilee Cherry with 22 and Ghislaine Landry of Canada with 19.Australia won the first three titles in the five-event series and reached the final on the last stop to finish with 94 points, 14 clear of second-place New Zealand and 20 clear of Canada and England.The convincing series win make the Australians favorites for gold in Rio, but Green and her teammates are conscious that New Zealand timed its preparations to peak for the Olympic tournament which kicks off Saturday.Speed is one of the Australian teams biggest assets, and Green knows shell be in the targets of defenders for that reason. She looks inside and outside of the game for motivation, recalling the posters of sprinters she had on her walls in her track and field days, admiring the likes of Carmelita Jeter, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.From a rugby sevens perspective, she looks to the likes of U.S. mens players Carlin Isles and Perry Baker.I do look up to speedsters, she said. I just like the power.Rugby is returning to the Olympics for the first time in 92 years, in the modified sevens version rather than the traditional 15-a-side game. Women will be playing for rugby medals for the first time, and Green sees that as an opportunity to break down some stereotypes.I want to be a tough girl who can do anything, she said. Im into my cars. I love building -- I did some construction work last year. I dont think there should be any boundaries to what girls should do. ' ' '