Victor Lai of Canada 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 defeat in the semifinals against Alex Lanier of France with a score of 16-21, 21-13, 21-14 at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi.
In this tournament, both semifinalists who do not progress to the final are awarded bronze medals. Last year, Lai made history by clinching Canada’s first-ever badminton world championships medal after defeating the 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarterfinals in Paris.
This year, Lai managed to defeat Loh in the round of 16 and later triumphed over Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the quarterfinals, securing his second world championship medal. Notably, Lai’s impressive performance has seen him rise from 50th to seventh place in the global rankings over the past year.