Canada’s Victor Lai secured the bronze medal in the men’s singles category at the badminton world championships held on Saturday. The 21-year-old athlete from Markham, Ontario, who was seeded seventh, faced defeat in the semifinals against the European champion, Alex Lanier from France, with a score of 16-21, 21-13, 21-14 at the Indira Gandhi Arena in New Delhi.
In this tournament, both players who do not advance to the finals are awarded bronze medals. Lai made history last year by claiming Canada’s inaugural medal at a badminton world championship after defeating the 2021 world champion, Loh Kean Yew from Singapore, in the quarterfinals in Paris.
This year, Lai managed to defeat Loh in the round of 16 and then went on to outplay Rasmus Gemke from Denmark in the quarterfinals, securing his second world championship medal. Notably, Lai has significantly climbed in the world rankings from 50th to seventh place over the past year.
