A humanoid robot broke a half-marathon record held by a human runner during a sports event in Beijing, highlighting the unpredictable potential of such robots’ capabilities. “Flash”, a robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor, won the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, taking 50 minutes and 26 seconds to finish the 21-kilometer race on April 19. The previous human record was 57 minutes and 20 seconds, which was set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo in March in Lisbon, Portugal. The performance was a significant step forward from last year’s inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds, and, among the nearly 20 participating teams, only six robots completed the race. This year, more than 100 teams took to the track. The range of participating teams expanded from five provinces last year to 13 provinces this year, and the event also attracted five international teams, with a new record set for the race completion rate.
The top three finishers, including the champion, runner-up and second runner-up, were all humanoid robots produced by Honor, a newcomer to the field, which has transitioned from manufacturing mobile phones “in just one year”, Du Xiaodi, engineer and coach of the champion robot, said after the event. Other competitors in the event included branded robots from companies such as Unitree and Noetix. One of the most amusing scenes of last year’s event was human engineers running after robots while holding their computers. But this year, more than 40% of the teams competed autonomously, with their robots relying entirely on sensors, cameras and other devices to perceive their surroundings in real time, and independently completing a series of complex tasks such as localization, mapping, path planning and dynamic obstacle avoidance.
Notably, the track this year was more challenging than last year’s, with additional curves, slopes and uphill and downhill sections added to put the robots’ adaptive capabilities to a tougher test. The top three robots all autonomously navigated through scenic areas, including a milu deer park and a tree-lined avenue in E-Town, which is also known as the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. Jiang Guangzhi, Party Secretary and Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said, “Beijing is positioning humanoid robots as an innovation and economic pillar, fol- lowing in the footsteps of smartphones and smart connected vehicles, and as a future industry with strategic significance.”
Beijing has established robot training grounds and data collection centers exceeding 18,000 square meters in areas such as E-Town, as well as in Haidian and Shijingshan districts. These facilities collect hundreds of thousands of hours of high-quality data annually, effectively supporting innovation and technological iteration for numerous startups and leading enterprises. In 2025, global shipments of humanoid robots reached about 17,000 units, with Chinese companies contributing 14,000 units, accounting for over 80% of the total, the China Daily reports.
