A Humanoid Robot Set a Half-Marathon Record in China

A humanoid robot from the Honor remote-controlled team crosses the finish line during the E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026.Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Over the weekend in China, a humanoid robot shattered world half-marathon record—the human record—by seven minutes.

The star performer was a robot developed by the Chinese company Honor (the smartphone maker), which finished the 13.1-mile race in 50 minutes, 26 seconds. The human record, set by Ugandan Olympic medalist Jacob Kiplimo, is 57 minutes, 20 seconds. The result marks an impressive milestone especially considering that, just a year earlier, the fastest robot at this half-marathon event took two and a half hours to complete the same distance.

But Honor's robot was not the only participant. The event consisted of more than 100 humanoid robots from 76 institutions across China. The robots lined up alongside 12,000 ...