Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado said Wednesday that he is finished talking publicly about his relationship with the club.

"There has been a lot of stuff going on that nobody knows about, and I was reacting to what was said, and [that] was out of character for me because I'm very private with my life," Arenado wrote in a statement released to the Denver Post on Wednesday. "The Rockies have been talking to my agent and me this offseason about a number of things that will remain between us. I will not speak on these things anymore. I'm getting ready for the upcoming season. I'm working hard to get better for my teammates and fans."

On Monday, after Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich declared that the team had ended trade talks for Arenado, the third baseman told MLB.com that there was "a lot of disrespect from people there that I don't want to be a part of."

The disrespect, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan, centered on the Rockies' winter of inaction less than a year after the team signed Arenado to an eight-year, $260 million contract extension.

When the organization signaled early this offseason that it did not intend to expand its payroll this winter, Arenado expressed betrayal, sources told Passan, believing that Colorado was not doing enough to improve the team coming off a 71-91 season.

Late last week, the Rockies informed teams that they intended to slow discussions for Arenado, multiple teams involved in the talks told ESPN, though the Rockies continued to exchange proposals with teams over the weekend. Teams that have shown varying levels of interest in Arenado this winter include the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers, according to sources.

Executives involved in the discussions told ESPN that Colorado's demands were excessive enough that no deal has come close to being finalized. The Rockies, sources said, have sought a significant return for Arenado, despite the size and structure of his contract.

Arenado signed an eight-year, $260 million contract extension before last season. He holds a full no-trade clause and an opt-out clause that allows him to void the deal after the 2021 season.

The five-time All-Star has won a Gold Glove in each of his seven major league seasons and is regarded as being on a Hall of Fame track, with a career .295/.351/.546 line, 227 home runs and 734 RBIs.

NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball is using its financial muscle to support the U.S. women's softball team, which already is assured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics while the American men's baseball team struggles to qualify.

MLB announced an agreement Thursday to become the presenting sponsor of the women's "Stand Beside Her" tour, a slate of exhibition games leading up to the Olympic tournament from July 22-28.

"We're both bat and ball sports. Even though we're not the same sport, there are so many similarities that you just can't ignore," said Kim Ng, MLB's senior vice president for baseball operations. "It was important for us to make sure that they have this acknowledgment and recognition of their ability and their talent."

Softball began as an Olympic sport for the 1996 Atlanta Games. The U.S. won gold medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004 with players that included Dot Richardson, Jennie Finch and Jessica Mendoza, then lost to Japan in the 2008 gold medal game.

Baseball and softball were dropped for the next two Olympics, then restored for this year, when the U.S. and Japan will be joined by Australia, Canada, Italy and Mexico for softball games in Fukushima and Yokohama, but not Tokyo. The sports are likely to be dropped for 2024 in Paris but could return four years later in Los Angeles.

The U.S. men's baseball team stumbled in its first attempt to qualify, wasting a ninth-inning lead against Mexico in the final game of the Premier12 tournament in November and losing in the 10th. The U.S. has two more chances to join Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea in the Olympic field: an Americas tournament in Arizona from March 22-26 and a final tournament in Taiwan from April 1-5.

MLB is not allowing players on 40-man big league rosters to compete in qualifying, and few top pitching prospects were at the November tournament.

Softball has no such issues. The Olympics are the sport's highest-profile event.

"The platform for us is 10 times bigger," American outfielder Haylie McCleney said. "For us, it's a great opportunity for people that have never watched softball before, people that have only followed it at the collegiate level, to really see how fun our game is to watch, how pure it is. If people are baseball fans, I guarantee they're going to love softball because it's pretty much just a faster game -- it's shorter, it's quicker, it's more entertaining to watch, in my opinion."

The 2008 gold medal softball game took 1 hours, 45 minutes -- less than half the 3:45 average for this year's World Series.

As part of the deal with MLB, the softball team's official training facility will be at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, the old Dodgertown spring training camp.

MLB Network will include programming from the tour, which currently starts Feb. 4 in Tampa, Florida, and has about three dozen stops.

The U.S. women's soccer team has attracted huge television audiences. MLB sees softball as an opportunity for the sport's growth.

"These are world-class athletes," Ng said. "Because we have not been in the Olympics for the last 12 years, they just haven't had that stage. So it's really important at this point that we show as much support as we can for them."

With nearly all of the top free agents off the market, four of the game's biggest stars have been attached to trade rumors this offseason. Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, Kris Bryant and Francisco Lindor would be welcome additions to any team. Over the past four years, each member of that group ranks in the top 10 in FanGraphs wins above replacement. Last season, the group averaged more than 5.0 fWAR, with Lindor's very good 4.4 mark the lowest of the bunch.

We should acknowledge that the team trading one of these players would do so as a cost-saving measure designed to trim payroll, and thus would be expected to be worse in 2020. Given that the Red Sox, Cubs and Indians are all clear contenders, and the Sox and Cubs are two of the wealthiest teams in the game, these are unusual circumstances lacking in sound logic. However, if the team owner is calling for a reduction in payroll, then perhaps trading a star player close to free agency might be the best way to achieve that and get better in the near future, even if it isn't 2020.

Parting with any of these stars would be an incredibly difficult decision, but with the caveat above, here is an argument for and against trading each of the four.

A preview to this weekend’s celebration of running at the NEC

The National Running Show goes from strength to strength as it takes place this weekend (January 25-26) at the NEC in Birmingham for the third time.

The show is in partnership with Children with Cancer UK and opens its doors at 9am on Saturday as thousands of runners, sports brands, retailers, nutrition experts and race organisers gather under one roof for a two-day celebration of running.

With the 2020 show offering a larger floor space than in previous years (halls 17-18), visitors will be able to discover the latest kit, tech, nutrition and races from over 250 exhibitors, learn from inspiring speakers and improve their running technique thanks to the hands-on feature areas.

Click here for an interactive floor plan

Opening what promises to be two packed days will be Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell (9am, Jan 25) followed by Kriss Akabusi and Dean Karnazes (9am, Jan 26).

Further speakers include Steve Cram, Jo Pavey, Camille Heron, Nicky Spinks, Anita Bean and Nick Butter, while Susie Chan and Iwan Thomas are acting as hosts.

Attractions include a running skills theatre, all-terrain running zone, ultra zone, OCR zone, trail zone, a 3D gait analysis section, nutrition advice zone, podiatry clinic, Steve Cram’s training camp, running bookshop, run café and treadmill challenge.

Mike Seaman, chief executive of Raccoon Events, said: “This will be our third edition of the event and we have so much planned to ensure that it really is the most successful show yet.

“No matter how far or how fast you run, there is something for everyone – from our superb feature areas through to our incredible range of exhibitors covering everything from apparel, footwear, accessories, tech and nutrition to race entry and charity fundraising.

“As always, our speaker line-up is incredible, and we cannot wait to be thrilled and inspired by all those taking to the stage.”

Worknesh Degefa targets second title while Soloman Deksisa leads men’s field

Ethiopian duo Worknesh Degefa and Soloman Deksisa will spearhead the fields featuring major city marathon winners and athletes with more than 35 international victories between them when the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon is staged on Friday (January 24).

The pair boast the best PBs in the women’s and men’s fields respectively and will be among the big favourites when the elite side of the IAAF Gold Label event race gets under way at 6am local time (2am UK time).

For Deksisa – who set his PB of 2:04:40 when finishing third in Amsterdam in 2018 – it’s a debut appearance on the flat and fast roads of Dubai and the 25-year-old will be looking to add to the back-to-back city marathon wins he enjoyed in Hamburg and Mumbai in 2018.

Another Dubai debutant is Kenya’s Eric Kiptanui, whose personal best of 58:42 makes him the fastest half-marathon runner ever entered into the Dubai Marathon.

Ethiopia’s Getaneh Molla won last year’s race on his debut in a course record time of 2:03:34 and Kiptanui has the potential to continue this tradition and possibly end Ethiopia’s eight-year dominance of the men’s race.

For Degefa it’s a welcome return to one of her favourite hunting grounds. The 29-year-old holds the distinction of being the fastest Ethiopian female marathon runner of all time thanks to her PB of 2:17:41 – the fifth fastest marathon time ever run by a woman – set in Dubai just twelve months ago.

As well as that personal best when finishing second last year, Degefa won in Dubai in 2017 and finished fourth in 2018. She also won the Boston Marathon in April 2019.

Her challengers include fellow former Boston Marathon winner Bizunesh Deba (2:19:59) and the up-and-coming Bedatu Hirpa, who won the 2017 Athens Marathon at the age of just 18.

While those elite fields will take to the roads at 6am local time on Friday, with the masses off an hour later at 7am, the honour of getting the day’s action under way falls to the fields of wheelchair athletes.

Among those starting a battle royale at 5.55am will be the defending champions Marcel Hug and Sandra Graf of Switzerland

“Last year we witnessed two new course records and some fantastic marathon times,” said event director Peter Connerton.

“This week, the course is the same for the 21st running of the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon so we are looking forward to yet another high-quality race from a talented group of elite athletes.”

Live stream

The race will be available to watch on a live stream, with commentary from Paula Radcliffe, Pat Butcher and Tim Hutchings.

The stream is set to begin at 5.50am local time (1.50am UK time) on Friday morning before the start of the wheelchair races at 5.55am and the men’s and women’s races at 6am.

Governing body looks to a fresh start after independent review highlights the need for change in areas such as coaching, communication and leadership roles

The departure of UK Athletics (UKA) performance director Neil Black (pictured) less than a year before the Olympics is of “acute concern”. The lack of an authoritative coach within UKA’s leadership team “is viewed with incredulity”. Staff turnover at the governing body has “escalated tensions, confused roles and blurred accountability”.

These are just some of the critical comments contained in an independent review into British Athletics’ handling of the Lottery-funded World Class Programme.

The review took place last year and its findings are available exclusively in the latest (January 23) issue of AW. In a five-page article, Sarah Rowell – the interim chair of UKA during most of 2019 – offers her thoughts on the results, while Vikki McPherson, a former international athlete who was commissioned to carry out the review, delivers an ‘executive summary’, which AW has reproduced word for word in the magazine.

There are no fine details about UKA’s dealings with Alberto Salazar, or the Zara Hyde Peters episode, or the departure of performance director Black after the World Championships in Doha, or Richard Bowker’s dismally short reign as chair of the governing body. But McPherson’s ‘executive summary’ is not as dry as the title suggests and it contains a number of eye-catching comments as it tackles areas like selection for major championships, the impact that a narrow medal-winning focus has on the wider sport and what it describes as “a lack of trust in the governing body”.

Rowell admits there has been “a period of uncertainty” following the departures of Black, Bowker and chief executive Niels de Vos and she is keen for the review to act as a catalyst for positive change. Strictly speaking, the review had two main parts – a focus on the World Class Programme (including non-Olympic disciplines and young athlete programmes) and a look into the world of performance coaching – and together the two reviews have prompted calls for change in five main areas.

These are: performance leadership (key roles such as the performance director and head coaches), performance coaching, team selection, communication and connectivity with the wider sport, plus support provision.

If the governing body focuses effectively on change and improvements in these areas, McPherson says optimistically there is a “collective hope new leadership will herald a new dawn”.

Rowell adds: “UK Athletics strongly believes that we can build on our successes to date and come out of what has been a period of uncertainty, working closely with our home country partners and the whole sport to create a performance structure which supports and enables all to maximise their potential; and does so by building on our current strengths, responding to new opportunities and addressing the gaps and weaknesses highlighted within the reviews.”

Shoe guru Paul Freary discusses the development of carbon fibre plated shoes and where the future of footwear is heading

AW‘s shoe guru Paul Freary takes a look at the current controversy around the Nike Vaporfly.

With talk of such shoes possibly being banned by World Athletics, he discusses the development of carbon fibre plated shoes and examines the options for the governing body and where the future of footwear is heading.