Ruth Engelhard

Ruth Engelhard, formerly Ruth Becker (born 3 January 1909, in Lichterfeld – died 22 October 1975, in Darmstadt), was a German track and field athlete and a successful 80 metres hurdler in the 1930s.

Career At the 1934 Women's World Games on 11 August 1934, in London, she won the 80 metres hurdles in 11.6 seconds, improving the existing world record by one tenth of a second. This record was set under the auspices of the International Women's Sports Federation (FSFI), which organized the Women's World Games separately from the IAAF; this may explain its absence from some later IAAF-focused world record progression lists.

She was also involved in two world records in relay race: on 20 July 1929 she achieved a time of 2:05.3 minutes in the 10 × 100 metres relay. On 26 June 1932, the German national relay team set a world record of 1:45.8 minutes in the 4 × 200 metres relay in Neuhausen. She won four German championships: three times in the 80-meter relay (1929, 1933, and 1934) and once with the 4x100-meter relay team of SV Siemens Berlin in 1934.

She had been married since 1932 to Hermann Engelhard (1903–1984), a track and field athlete and two-time medalist at the 1928 Olympic Games.