The humans were left far behind as smartphone maker Honor\u2019s humanoid robot shattered the men\u2019s world record in China.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 19 Apr 2026<\/span>19 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A humanoid robot competing against flesh-and-blood runners has broken the world record at a Beijing half-marathon, showcasing the rapid technological advancements achieved by Chinese makers.<\/p>\n Spectators lined the roads in Yizhuang in the capital\u2019s south on Sunday to watch the machines and their human rivals race, each group in a separate lane to avoid accidents or collisions.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Some of the robots were highly agile, moving like famous runners such as Usain Bolt, while others had more basic capabilities.<\/p>\n The winning humanoid, equipped with an autonomous navigation system and running for Chinese smartphone maker Honor, completed the roughly 21km (13-mile) course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, at an average speed of about 25km\/h (15.5mph), according to state broadcaster CCTV.<\/p>\n That was far faster than the top human in Sunday\u2019s race, while also surpassing the current men\u2019s world record of 57:20, held by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.<\/p>\n The result represented spectacular progress from last year, when robot-runners fell repeatedly, and the best took more than two hours and 40 minutes to finish.<\/p>\n The number of humanoid entries jumped from about 20 last year to more than 100, according to organisers, a sign of the sector\u2019s growing popularity.<\/p>\n Han Chenyu, a 25-year-old student who watched the race from behind a safety barrier, barely had time to take out her phone and snap a picture of the leading robot as it whizzed past.<\/p>\n She told the AFP news agency she was enthusiastic about such leaps in technology and thought the event was \u201cpretty cool\u201d.<\/p>\n But, she added, \u201cas someone who works for a living, I\u2019m a little worried about it sometimes. I feel like technology is advancing so fast that it might start affecting people\u2019s jobs\u201d, particularly with artificial intelligence (AI) growing increasingly sophisticated.<\/p>\n Humanoid robots have become a common sight in China in recent years, in the media as well as in public spaces.<\/p>\n Xie Lei, 41, who watched Sunday\u2019s race with his family, said robots could \u201cbecome part of our daily lives\u201d within several years, potentially used for \u201cthings like housework, elderly companionship or basic caregiving\u201d or \u201cdangerous jobs, even firefighting\u201d.<\/p>\n The humanoid half-marathon aims to encourage innovation and popularise the technologies used in creating and operating such machines.<\/p>\n In a sign of the industry\u2019s strength, investment in robotics and so-called embodied AI amounted to 73.5 billion yuan ($10.8bn) in China in 2025, according to a study by a government agency.<\/p>\n \u201cFor thousands of years, humans have been at the top on planet Earth. But now, look at robots. Just in terms of autonomous navigation, at least in this specific sport event, they\u2019re already starting to surpass us,\u201d Xie said.<\/p>\n \u201cOn one hand, it does make you feel a little bit sad for humanity. But at the same time, technology, especially in recent years, has given us so much imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The humans were left far behind as smartphone maker Honor\u2019s humanoid robot shattered the men\u2019s world record in China. Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026 A humanoid robot competing against flesh-and-blood runners has broken the world record at a Beijing half-marathon, showcasing the rapid technological advancements achieved by Chinese makers. Spectators lined the roads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"Humanoid](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026-04-19T024402Z_139470360_RC20SKAUQKZ0_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-ROBOTS-ATHLETICS-1776595256.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
\u2018Pretty cool\u2019<\/h2>\n
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