Developed by the Chinese company Honor, the model completed the 21 km race in 50min26s, leaving behind the 57-minute mark set by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo
One humanoid robot won a half-marathon for robots in Beijing this Sunday (19), running faster than the human world record in a demonstration of China’s technological advances.
The winning robot, made by Honor – a Chinese smartphone manufacturer – completed the 21 kilometer race in 50 minutes and 26 secondsaccording to a WeChat post from the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, known as Beijing E-Town.
The time was less than that of the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who covered the same distance in about 57 minutes in March, in a competition in Lisbon.
The robot’s performance also marked a significant advance compared to the inaugural edition of the event, in 2025. On that occasion, the winner completed the test in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.
But the competition, held in parallel with a test for humans, was not without unforeseen events. One robot fell right at the starte another ran into a barrier.
Du Xiaodi, a test and development engineer at Honor, said his team was satisfied with the result. According to him, the design of the robot was inspired by high-performance human athletescom long legs of approximately 95 centimeters and equipped with a powerful liquid cooling systemlargely developed internally.
“Going forward, some of these technologies can be transferred to other areas. For example, structural reliability and liquid cooling technology can be applied in future industrial scenarios,” he said.
Although it still takes time to achieve large-scale commercialization of humanoid robots, viewers have already shown enthusiasm. Sun Zhigang, who was in the audience last year, attended Sunday’s race with his son.
“I feel huge changes this year,” said Sun. “It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, something I never imagined.”
Wang Wen, who went to the event with his family, said that robots have stolen much of the prominence from human runners. “This could signal the arrival of a kind of new era,” he said.
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
