Humanoid robot breaks half-marathon world record after tripping into barricade

The runner who beat a half-marathon faster than any human has didn’t need to eat bowls of pasta the night before or buy pricey running shoes.

All Lightning, a 5’5″ bright-red humanoid robot, had to do was show up at 7.30am on Sunday.

The robot built by Chinese phone company Honor completed the 21-kilometre (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds.

This was nearly seven minutes faster than Jacob Kiplimo’s record of 57 minutes.

Lighting, which weighs 45kg, won despite crashing into a barricade and tripping over during its final stretch, according to the state-run China Daily.

More than 300 robots took part in the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon, sprinting in a separate track from the 12,000 human runners.

State media outlet CCTV said 40% of the robot runners were autonomous, so controlled using algorithms, while the rest were controlled remotely.

Two other autonomous Lightning models got the silver and bronze medals, finishing the race in about 51 minutes and 53 minutes, respectively.

A fourth Lightning actually beat all three with a finish time of 48 minutes and 19 seconds. But under competition rules, all remote-controlled bots have their times multiplied by 1.2, so it lost out.

Several models collapsed during the race. One, an H1 model from robotics firm Unitree, fell only moments before the finishing line.

Unitree said ahead of the race that its unit could sprint at 10 metres per second, nearly as fast as Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest person.

While the top winners were lightning fast on Sunday, they all collapsed during a trial run on April 12.

One was filmed falling headfirst at the starting line, smashing into pieces and prompting a medical crew to lift its remains onto a stretcher.

‘Didn’t humans invent the wheel precisely so machines could run faster?’ asked one social media user on X.

Lightning is the nickname given to the robot line LRobotics D1, which was designed by looking at how elite human athletes move their bodies.

Engineers told the Chinese newspaper Global Times that the bot’s joints have a liquid-cooling system similar to smartphones.

Chinese navigation platform Amap said its robotic athlete was able to navigate tracks using geolocation, while it can be commanded to buy coffee or pick up deliveries.

As many of the bots tumbled and failed, Beijing officials said the race was a ‘major step forward for the robotics industry’.

China has embraced robots in recent years, having more robot workers than the rest of the world combined at two million.

Robot manufacturer trade group, the International Federation of Robotics, said China installed 542,000 factory bots in 2024, more than double the number 10 years ago. 

These include machines that weld car parts together to claws that lift heavy boxes onto conveyor belts.

Other robots include so-called robotaxis, self-driving cabs that are now a common sight in cities like Wuhan, as well as in London now.

Another common sight in Wuhan, however, is self-driving cars breaking down due to system faults, which happened earlier this month.

Dozens of passengers were trapped inside the vehicles for hours

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.