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gainst the backdrop of three nights of unprecedented rioting that began in North London’s Tottenham, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Championships continued amid tight security at Wembley Arena on Wednesday.

Danish veteran shuttler Peter Gade maintained his impressive run of form with a leisurely second-round defeat of his Russian opponent at the BWF World Championships London on Wednesday.

The third seed and semifinalist at last year’s world championship in Paris wasted no time dispatching Stanislav Pukhov, 21-5, 21-9.

On his Facebook page Gade commented that Pukhov was “a very good attacking player”, but there was little evidence of any fight-back from Pukhov during his 23-minute defeat.

At the age of 34, Gade, looking in fine shape, beat English champion Rajiv Ouseph 21-8, 21-18 in his late night opener on Tuesday. In Thursday’s third round, Gade will likely meet Indonesia’s Simon Santoso, who was to face Dmytro Savadsky of the Ukraine on Wednesday night.

Gade commented on his Facebook wall about the riots that broke out in major cities in England, including Manchester and Liverpool in the northwest and Birmingham in central England: “These are horrific pictures we’ve been seeing on the news and hopefully this will end soon, but so far I still feel safe on the streets of London.”

Meanwhile, top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia also faced little difficulty in handling his second-round opponent, Ville Lang of Finland.

The world number one quickly wrapped up the match 21-10, 21-11, and will face a more challenging rival in ninth seed Park Sung Hwan of South Korea on Thursday.

“I am quite confident because I played him in the Sudirman Cup recently and beat him,” Chong Wei was quoted by Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Defending champion Chen Jin of China and former world titleholders Lin Dan and Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat were in action later on Wednesday.

Gade and Chong Wei are hunting for their first world championship gold medal. Gade came closest to claiming gold back in 2001 in Seville when he won silver, and has taken home three bronzes — in 1999 in Copenhagen, 2005 in Anaheim and in 2010 in Paris. Chong Wei snatched the bronze in Anaheim in 2005.

In the women’s singles draw, sixth seed Saina Nehwal of India sailed into the third round with a 21-10, 21-7 defeat of Irish shuttler Chloe Magee, to set up a meeting with Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong.

Magee, who also plays mixed doubles with her brother Sam Magee, will take on Indonesia’s most promising mixed duo of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir on late Wednesday, which will be the first match for the world number two Indonesian pair.

Other Indonesians scheduled to play late on Wednesday were men’s doubles team M. Ahsan and Bona Septano, who were drawn against Baptiste Careme and Sylvain Grosjean of France, women’s doubles team Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati, who were to face Johanna Goliszewski and Carla Nelte of Germany, and men’s singles great Taufik Hidayat, who was scheduled to play Zi Liang Derek Wong of Singapore.