A humanoid robot outperformed the human half-marathon world record by 7 minutes during a race in Beijing, which featured 112 teams.

      A humanoid robot named Lightning finished the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon today in a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, surpassing the human world record by nearly seven minutes. The robot, created by Shenzhen Honor Smart Technology Development Co., autonomously navigated the 21-kilometer course without remote control, using multi-sensor fusion and real-time decision-making algorithms. Another Lightning unit, which was remotely controlled, completed the course even faster in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. The current human half-marathon world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds was set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in Lisbon on March 8.

      Both the robots and around 12,000 human runners followed the same path but ran in separate lanes. The human race was won by China’s Zhao Haijie, who finished in 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds. The robot race victor was a machine measuring 169 centimeters tall, with an effective leg length of 95 centimeters designed to emulate top human runners. It produced 400 newton-meters of peak torque and employed a proprietary liquid cooling system with a heat exchange flow rate of over four liters per minute, utilizing technology developed for Honor’s smartphones.

      The scale of the event

      This was the second edition of the Robot World Humanoid Robot Games Half-Marathon, co-hosted by the Beijing Municipal People’s Government and China Media Group. The inaugural event, held on the same date last year, was plagued by problems, with only six of 21 robotic entrants finishing the race. Many robots stumbled, lost control, or remained stationary at the starting point. The winner was a Tiangong Ultra robot, which completed the course in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds.

      The 2026 edition was much improved in virtually every aspect. A total of 112 teams from 26 brands participated, showcasing over 300 individual robots, including five international teams from Germany, France, and Brazil. Approximately 40% of the teams competed in the autonomous navigation category, where robots must maneuver the course without human assistance. Teams using remote controls had their net times adjusted with a 1.2 multiplier to impose a 20% penalty encouraging autonomous performance. All three teams on the podium in the autonomous category were Honor robots, all of which achieved times faster than the human record.

      The progress from 2025 to 2026, moving from six finishers out of 21 to over 100 teams competing with autonomous navigation, illustrates significant year-on-year advancements that make the event noteworthy beyond mere spectacle. Lightning did collide with a barrier near the finish and fell, requiring assistance from staff to get back on its feet before completing the race. Another robot also fell at the starting line. However, these failures were exceptions rather than the standard, a marked shift from the previous year.

      Who built the winner

      Honor, a smartphone company spun off from Huawei in 2020, is the first significant manufacturer to enter the humanoid robotics sector. It announced its humanoid robot initiative at the Mobile World Congress on March 1, pledging $10 billion over five years for AI development. The company claims that Lightning runs at a speed of four meters per second, which is 14% faster than Boston Dynamics’ Atlas. The entire process from development to marathon participation took one year.

      Du Xiaodi, an engineer from Honor on the winning team, noted the competition's value in technology transfer: “Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be useful in other fields. For instance, structural reliability and liquid-cooling technology could be utilized in future industrial applications.” The race serves as a catalyst for advancements in locomotion, balance, navigation, and endurance, skills that are equally needed in factories, construction sites, and eventually home environments.

      China’s humanoid robot industry

      The marathon serves as a demonstration for an industry in China that is being developed through significant state investment, similar to past efforts in electric vehicles and solar panels. The 15th Five-Year Plan, which covers the years from 2026 to 2030, elevates robotics and “embodied intelligence” to one of the country's ten top “new industry tracks.” The government has committed a one-trillion-yuan ($138 billion) state-backed fund for humanoid robots, industrial automation, and embodied AI. In February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced a “Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligence Standard System” drafted by over 120 research institutions and manufacturers, with a roadmap aimed at fostering Chinese standards for ISO and IEC international adoption by 2028.

      The MIIT describes humanoid robots as “the next groundbreaking innovation following computers, smartphones, and new-energy vehicles.” The industry is projected to exceed 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) by the end of the year. Chinese companies currently lead in production; AGIBOT shipped more than 5,000 units in 2025