Team Ghana’s participation at the ongoing World Athletics Championships in Budapest may be over, but there was still plenty of action on Day 6 of the competition, with shocks on the track, a golf cart accident off it, a marriage proposal on the road and a Jamaican party headlining the day. 

The evening session started with the men and women’s 200m semi finals. 

Shacarri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Marie Josee Ta Lou were all in the same semi final and all three made it through to Friday’s showdown where Olympic bronze medalist Gabby Thomas would hope to cause a a major upset. 

The men’s semi final was a bit more dramatic, and not for the results on the track, but off it, The the golf cart carrying the athletes in semi final 1 from the warm up area to the stadium was involved in a collision with another cart. Thankfully, no major injuries to any of the athletes, but it forced the semi final 1 to be pushed back, and was subsequently the last one to be run. 

Defending champion Noah lyles was in that cart accident, but he breezed through to the final when the race eventually happened. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, Erryon Knighton, Kenny Bednarek and Andre De Grasse all made it to what should be a cracking final on Friday. 

Jamaica's Andrew Hudson, who reportedly had glass in his eye from the accident, was later reinstated in the final after protesting. He failed to qualify from his semi final, but later filed a complaint that the accident affected his vision (he said the lanes were blurry), and was reinstated.

Day 6 was the best day for Jamaica so far in the competition with five medals overall. Two of them were real shocks.

Eight years on from her first win in the event, Danielle Williams stunned the field to claim gold in the women’s 100m hurdles ahead of Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho Quinn who took the silver, with Kendra Harrison taking the bronze.

Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, the defending champion and world record holder, only managed a 6th place finish. 

Then Anthonio Watson ran a powerful last section of the race to take the win in the men’s 400m, Jamaica’s first win in the event since 1983.

The island nation then added silver and bronze in the men’s long jump and another bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles. Their fans were agog in the stadium with music and dance and Jamaican flags everywhere.

There was no Sydney McLaughlin or Dalilah Mohammed in the women’s 400m hurdles, which meant, a new winner was going to emerge. And it was the Dutch athlete Femke Bol, favorite to win in the absence of the aforementioned two, leading from start to finish to claim her first gold medal. It was redemption for her after she crashed on the opening day in the mixed relays. Bronze in Tokyo, silver in Eugene, Bol is finally a world champion in Budapest. 

And there was a different kind of medal handed to one of the athletes in the morning.

The road to a marriage proposal can be a long and winding one. For two Slovakian athletes, the journey was exactly 35 kilometers long.

Both Dominik Černý and Hana Burzalova were competing for their country in the race walking events. 

The two races took place simultaneously on Thursday morning, Černý finished 19th in the men’s race, about eight minutes behind gold medalist Álvaro Martín. But of course, he still finished way ahead of the his girlfriend and had enough time to prepare for his own golden moment. 
When Burzalova crossed the line later in 28th position of the women’s race, she appeared shocked to find Černý on one knee with a ring in one hand in a touching proposal.

Burzalova said yes of course, and Černý celebrated with a fist pump to the sky after slipping the ring onto the 22-year-old’s finger. Amazing story. 

Day 7 will throw up some more battles. The 4x100m relay heats get underway, but it’s the 200m finals that everyone is really looking forward to, and they’re back to back, with the women going first at 7:40pm Ghana, before the men take to the tracks 10mins later. 

Shacarri Richardson has already snatched the 100m title from one Jamaican, can she take another title from them? Shericka Jackson is the defending champion and she won’t go down without a fight. Gabby Thomas didn’t run in 100m so she’s very fresh and has the fastest time in the world this year in the event, and she could be a party pooper. And then there’s Marie Josee Ta Lou, whom every neutral here seems to be rooting for. 

The men’s 200m final will be a straight shoot out between the 100m medalists Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo and Zharnel Hughes. But don’t rule out Kenny Bednarek and Andre Degrasse either. Whatever happens, we know it will be a fast race.