A humanoid robot completed the 100-meter test in just 9.39 seconds during a preliminary race of the second Humanoid Robot World Games held in Beijing, thus surpassing the human world record of 9.58 seconds held by Jamaican Usain Bolt.
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The protagonist of the feat, Tiangong Ultra, beat his rivals in a qualifying series that took place during the opening of the second edition of this competition, held this Saturday in the Chinese capital. The robot, belonging to the Tianzhuo team, crossed the finish line first with a body-length lead, surpassing not only the 9.58 seconds that athlete Bolt set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, but also its own mark of 21.50 seconds, with which it had set the record of the previous edition of the games.
A humanoid robot developed by China’s Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds, beating the human world record held by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt https://t.co/z0D4H4Vco6 pic.twitter.com/EYuum0iwA8
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 22, 2026
In the same series competed the robots Shandian (lightning in Mandarin), from the technology company Honor, which finished second with 9.47 seconds, and the one from the Chinese Unitree (the robotics company that this Wednesday made an early stock market debut), third with 12.41 seconds. After the starting shot, the three humanoid robots shot out of their positions and Tiangong stayed neck and neck for most of the race with Shandian, although it managed to overtake it.
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Beijing inaugurated this Saturday the second edition of the so-called Humanoid Robot World Games, which bring together 666 teams and 2,056 machines, including 25 foreign teams, in an expanded program that seeks to test both their sports capabilities and their ability to perform real-life tasks.
The competition, which will last until Wednesday at the National Speed Skating Oval, known as the Ice Ribbon, will feature 51 events and 1,301 matches or competitive sessions. Among these, in addition to disciplines such as athletics, soccer, or martial arts, there are others of greater complexity for the machines such as table tennis, wrestling, or weightlifting. Last April, robots already outperformed humans in the Beijing half marathon, where the same ‘Shandian’ won with a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, above the human world record, set at 57 minutes and 20 seconds, although under non-comparable conditions.
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