{"id":18456,"date":"2026-04-20T17:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/18456\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T17:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T17:53:20","slug":"humanoid-robot-beats-human-half-marathon-world-record-in-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/18456\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanoid robot beats human half-marathon world record in Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A humanoid robot<\/a> aptly named Lightning made history on the streets of Beijing<\/a> over the weekend, beating the human half-marathon world record by several minutes.<\/p>\n

Dozens of robots<\/a> lined up for the Beijing E-Town Robot Half Marathon on Sunday, tackling the 13-mile (21-kilometer) race separate from human runners.<\/p>\n

Developed by Chinese smartphone company Honor, Lightning completed the half-marathon in just over 50 minutes, besting the human world record for the distance of over 57 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Lightning humanoid robot by Honor crosses the finish line of the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Reuters\/Maxim Shemetov<\/p>\n

Lightning’s creators were delighted with the result. Du Xiaodi, a development engineer at Honor, was quick to draw comparisons with other industries.<\/p>\n

“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas,” said Du. “It’s similar to how the automotive industry initially developed through competitions.”<\/p>\n

The event tested robots in real-world conditions, from balance and endurance to navigation. Some ran autonomously, while others were controlled remotely, all competing on a parallel course to avoid collisions with human athletes.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t flawless. A few robots stumbled or veered off course, and one was carried away on a stretcher after breaking to pieces in a fall.<\/p>\n

\"Humanoid<\/p>\n

Staff carry a humanoid robot that crashed after the finish line of the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Maxim Shemetov \/ REUTERS<\/p>\n

But the progress was striking compared to last year, when most struggled to even finish the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some spectators weren’t worried by the failures.<\/p>\n

“I’m very excited,” said Sun Zhigang. “First of all, it’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined.”<\/p>\n

“Their performance is quite impressive,” Jiang Liangzhi said. “I didn’t expect the speeds to be this fast already, and they’re all very stable.”<\/p>\n

\"Runners<\/p>\n

People take pictures of the Tiangong Ultra 2026 humanoid robot participating in the Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Reuters\/Tingshu Wang<\/p>\n

Organizers said the marathon isn’t really about speed. It’s about pushing robotics technology beyond the lab with potential applications in manufacturing, logistics and even emergency response.<\/p>\n

Chinese companies are pushing ahead with the development of robot technologies for both civilian and military uses, but Beijing’s robot half-marathon shows just how fast the future is moving from science fiction to sporting reality.<\/p>\n

\"Second<\/p>\n

Team members celebrate next to winning robot Lightning during a medial ceremony after the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, April 19, 2026.<\/p>\n

Maxim Shemetov \/ REUTERS<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A humanoid robot aptly named Lightning made history on the streets of Beijing over the weekend, beating the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1305,272,8,9,3404,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-18456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-beijing","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-robot","13":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116438316000354836","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}