A humanoid robot made by Honor, a Chinese smartphone company, won a half-marathon for robots in Beijing, completing the 21-kilometer race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. This was faster than the human world record holder, Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March. The race also showed strong improvement from 2025, when the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

However, not everything went smoothly — one robot fell at the start, and another crashed into a barrier.

Du Xiaodi, an engineer at Honor, said the team was satisfied with the result. He explained that the robot was modeled on outstanding human athletes, featuring long legs and a powerful liquid-cooling system developed largely in-house, and noted that these technologies could be applied to industrial work in the future.

Spectators were impressed. One said it was the first time robots had beaten humans, while another felt robots had stolen much of the spotlight from human runners.

China has made humanoid robots a key part of its 2026–2030 five-year plan. London-based technology research and advisory group Omdia recently ranked three Chinese firms — AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics, and UBTech Robotics — as the only top-ranked companies in its global assessment.