Lakshya Sen goes shirtless after his maiden CWG gold; know all about the 20-year-old shuttler

New Delhi: Indian young gun Lakshya Sen celebrated his maiden CWG men's badminton singles title by taking off his shirt in Birmingham.

10th-ranked Sen came from behind to end Ng Tze Yong's giant-killing run in the competition. The 20-year-old defeated the world number 42 from Malaysia 19-21, 21-9, 21-16.

"It was tense in the start, I had to work really hard. Yong also played a great tournament. Congratulations to him as well," said Sen after a hard fought contest.

The 20-year-old Sen comes from hills state Uttarakhand.

Born in 2001, he took on Badminton at a very early age and was the winner of the bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships in 2016. This did not satisfy his hunger, though and he claimed the top spot 2 years later.

Apart from this, he won silver at the singles event at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018 and a gold at the mixed event.

In 2021, he gave tough competition to Kidambi Srikanth, one of India's top badminton players, and almost earned a seat for the World Championships final. Srikanth inched past him though and gave a stellar performance in the tournament, ending his stint as a runner-up. Sen, on the other hand, won a bronze.

This was only the beginning of Lakshya's senior career as he won the India Open in 2022. Because after that, he won silver at the German Open and has continued an outstanding run with the All England Championships. If he had won the tournament, he would have been the 3rd India to come back with the honour.

The love for badminton runs in Lakshya's family as his father is a coach while his brother, Chirag Sen, is also a player. In fact, it was Chirag, the elder of the two, who took up the sport first. A very young Lakshya would accompany his brother to the tournament, and that is where he first saw the competition up close.

Sen received his training at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, one of the country's best, and was ranked number one singles player in the BWF World Junior ranking.