Victor Lai of Canada secured the men’s singles bronze medal at the badminton world championships for the second consecutive year. The 21-year-old from Markham, Ontario, who was seeded seventh, suffered a defeat in the semifinals against 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 the world championships, both semifinalists who fail to advance to the final are awarded bronze medals. Lai made history last year by clinching Canada’s inaugural badminton world championships medal when he defeated 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarterfinals in Paris.
This year, Lai triumphed over Loh in the round of 16 and subsequently defeated Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the quarterfinals to secure his second world championship medal. Remarkably, Lai has made a significant ascent in the world rankings, moving from 50th to seventh place over the past year.