Reuters removes doping stories after giving Wada employee Masters pass

• Wada's media head attended event with reporter's permit
• News agency admits violation of journalistic standards'

Revelations about undercover runners being recruited to expose an athletics doping conspiracy took a fresh twist on Thursday, when the Reuters news agency withdrew its own articles on the issue after admitting that one of its journalists had arranged for a senior World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) official to attend the Masters golf tournament at Augusta as an accredited journalist.

An investigation for the Observer in July revealed how the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) recruited a Kenyan runner to work as an undercover agent for a number of years, informing on his training group and resulting in US federal agents seizing large quantities of performance-enhancing drugs. During the period in question scores of Kenyan athletes were sanctioned for doping offences.