Chinese Humanoid Robots Break Human Sprint Records at Beijing Games

Chinese humanoid robots have broken human world records in sprinting events at the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which opened on Saturday night at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval.

On Sunday, a Tien Kung robot won the 400-meter large-robot race final in 38.15 seconds, surpassing the human men’s world record of 43.03 seconds. The second and third place robots also finished under 40 seconds, with times of 39.45 and 39.66 seconds respectively. This marks an improvement from last year's winning time of 88.03 seconds in the same event.

Another robot, Honor’s Lightning, finished the 100 meters in 9.47 seconds, also beating Bolt's record. Lightning had reportedly run 100 meters in 9.32 seconds in a preparatory test, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second. Lightning also won this year’s humanoid half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the pace of the elite men’s human world record.

The five-day event features 51 events and 1,301 matches involving over 600 teams and 2,056 humanoid robots from 16 countries. New competitions include table tennis and kickboxing, alongside running, football, boxing, high jump, weightlifting, and gymnastics. Scenario-based events have expanded to cover tasks in industrial production, hotels, homes, and logistics. A robot developed by Beijing-based Galbot participated in what the company described as the world’s first human-robot tennis match, trading forehands and backhands with human players.

China has promoted humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with policymakers and companies betting on advances in AI and hardware to accelerate their use.