Canada’s Victor Lai retained his men’s singles bronze medal at the badminton world championships on Saturday. The 21-year-old, hailing from Markham, Ontario, and seeded seventh, was defeated in the semifinals by 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 this tournament, both semifinalists who do not proceed to the final are awarded bronze medals.
Lai secured Canada’s inaugural medal at a badminton world championships last year by defeating 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the quarterfinals in Paris. This year, he overcame Loh in the round of 16 before triumphing over Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the quarterfinals to claim his second world championship medal. Notably, Lai’s impressive performance has seen him rise from 50th to seventh in the world rankings over the past year.
