In the late afternoon of August 23rd (Vietnam time), the 2026 Badminton World Championships closed a week of competition in New Delhi, India, with a series of finals in all 5 events. South Korea and France are the 2 most successful countries, with 2 gold medals each.
Before the world tournament, French badminton ranked 10th on the BWF rankings and their No. 1 male player was Christo Popov. However, the No. 5 seed was unexpectedly eliminated right in the first round.
Therefore, Alex Lanier - 9th seed, is the biggest hope and the 21-year-old player did not disappoint expectations. On the journey to the final, Lainer defeated 2nd seed from Thailand, Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the quarterfinals, and won Victor Lai in the semi-finals.
In the final against Japanese No. 10 seed Kodai Naraoka - who played impressively by eliminating both Ander Antonsen (No. 4 seed) and Chou Tien-Chen (6) - Lanier showed certainty and won 2 sets with a score of 21-11.
Lanier became the first French badminton player to win the world badminton championship in the men's singles.
Previously, in the mixed doubles event, the French pair - Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue - defeated the No. 1 seed Chinese pair Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping with a score of 22-20, 19-21, 21-15, thereby bringing home the first gold medal in history at the world championship for France.
Japanese badminton has 2 players in the singles final, in addition to Naraoka in the men's tournament, there is also Akane Yamaguchi in the women's singles.
Yamaguchi - who won in 2021, 2022 and 2025 - was the one who eliminated Nguyen Thuy Linh of Vietnam in round 1.
However, unfortunately for her, the opponent is the current world No. 1 player, An Se-young from South Korea. The 2024 Olympic champion won 2 sets with scores of 21-17, 21-11, to win the world championship for the second time (the previous time was in 2023).
Last year, she only won a bronze medal.
Meanwhile, An's compatriots Baek Hana and Lee So-hee won the women's doubles championship, the first victory for South Korea in this event after more than 3 decades.
Baek and Lee defeated the Chinese pair Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning with a score of 21-15, 21-15 to become the second Korean pair to win the world championship title in women's doubles, and also the first pair to do so since Gil Young-ah and Jang Hye-ock in 1995.
The remaining gold medal of the 2026 Badminton World Championship belongs to China in the men's doubles event. Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang defeated the pair Aaron Chia - Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia.
In addition to 2 silver medals, Chinese badminton also has 3 bronze medals.
3 Southeast Asian representatives, Malaysia (1 silver), Indonesia, Thailand (both 1 bronze) also have medals.
Vietnamese badminton has 8 athletes, participating in 4 events. Only Vu Thi Trang (women's singles), Pham Thi Dieu Ly - Pham Thi Khanh (women's doubles) reached the 2nd round.
Thuy Linh (women's singles), Le Duc Phat, Nguyen Hai Dang (men's singles), Nguyen Dinh Hoang - Tran Dinh Manh (men's doubles) all lost in the first round.
