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BY: CRISTOPHER AVELLO

Lightning the Running Robot Breaks Human World Record

Lightning, a remarkable running robot developed by the Chinese smartphone maker Honor, made headlines by finishing a 21-kilometer run in Beijing in an astonishing time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds. This extraordinary performance not only showcases the advancements in robotics but also beat the human world record by more than six minutes.

The human record, which is 57 minutes and 20 seconds, is currently held by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo, as noted by World Athletics. This achievement by Lightning underscores the potential of technology in sports and competitive events.

Lightning and other running robots were trailing behind their human rivals a year ago. Running a half-marathon faster than even the quickest human, on Sunday, the android out paced the entire field.

The bright-red humanoid, standing 169cm tall, showed no sign of having to slow down as it dashed past the finish line.

Last year’s winning robot finished in 2:40:42, this year’s robots remarkable feat represented a big stride for China in it’s technological rivalry with the U.S.

Runner-up robots, were also from Honor and used autonomous navigation, finished the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes, speedily.

Since, listing robotics as one of 1o key sectors in a blueprint for upgrading Chinese industries and shedding its reputation as the world’s cheap-labor factory. A focus has been accelerated over into China’s robot industry since 2015.

According to officials from a 2023 Policy Document, humanoid robotics were identified as a new frontier in technological competition,” such ambitions have led to a boom in robot sporting events across China over the past year, and stage set for mass production and secure supply chains for the next five years.

Spectators were impressed by the robots. Sun Zhigang, who had been in the audience last year, watched Sunday’s race with his son.

“I feel enormous changes this year,” Sun said. “It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined.”

Wang Wen, who came with his family, said robots seemed to have stolen much of the spotlight from human runners in the event.

“The robots’ speed far exceeds that of humans,” he said. “This may signal the arrival of sort of a new era.”

AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics Corp. were recently ranked as the only three first-tier vendors in its global assessment for shipment numbers in general-purpose embodied intelligent robots, by London-based technology research and advisory group Omdia.

They all shipped more than 1,000 units of the robots last year, with the first two companies shipping more than 5,000 units, the report said.

References

Humanoid robot wins half-marathon in China, beats world record (2026) ESPN https://www.espn.com/athletics/story/_/id/48529282/humanoid-robot-wins-half-marathon-china-beats-world-record

In a race between humans and robots, machines take the victory in a sign of advancements (2026) NBC

CNN Newsource