Victor Lai of Canada secured a bronze medal in the men’s singles event at the badminton world championships held in New Delhi. Lai, a 21-year-old athlete from Markham, Ontario, was seeded seventh but faced a 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 the badminton world championships, both semifinalists who do not progress to the final round are awarded bronze medals. Lai made history by winning Canada’s inaugural medal at the badminton world championships in the previous year. In that event, he eliminated the 2021 world champion, Loh Kean Yew of Singapore, in the quarterfinals held in Paris.
This year, Lai continued his impressive performance by defeating Loh in the round of 16 and later triumphing over Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the quarterfinals to secure his second world championship medal. Remarkably, Lai has significantly improved his world ranking, moving up from 50th to seventh place over the past year.