Canada’s Victor Lai secured the men’s singles bronze medal at the badminton world championships held on Saturday. The 21-year-old athlete from Markham, Ontario, who was seeded seventh, faced a tough defeat in the semifinals against the European champion Alex Lanier of France with a score of 16-21, 21-13, 21-14 at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi.
In badminton world championships, both semifinalists who do not progress to the final are awarded bronze medals. Lai had previously made history by claiming Canada’s first-ever medal at a badminton world championship last year in Paris when he defeated the 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarterfinals.
This year, Lai continued his impressive performance by overcoming Loh in the round of 16 and then securing a victory against Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the quarterfinals to clinch his second world championship medal. Notably, Lai has significantly improved his ranking from 50th to seventh in the global standings over the past year.