Marjorie Clark’s 11.8: The South African Record-Setter Who Helped Define Women’s Hurdling

On April 2, 1931, South Africa’s Marjorie Clark ran 11.8 seconds for 80m hurdles in Pietermaritzburg to reclaim the world record she had first set the year before. Nearly a century later, her performance still reads like a turning point—proof that elite women’s athletics was already global, technical, and fiercely competitive.