In China, near Yizhuang, a half-marathon mixing humans and humanoid robots turned in favor of the machines. Set up to popularize the technological advances of the Middle Kingdom, this race saw a robot from the Honor smartphone brand win. Beyond his success, he also broke the world record, held by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo (57’20”) since March, in Lisbon.
Several robot falls all the same
Despite this “historic” performance, the initiative was cut short for certain robots who fell or ran into a barrier. As for today’s winner, he was equipped with an autonomous navigation system and ran on average at… 25 km/h.
Among the competing robots, some were autonomous (40%), while others were remotely controlled. Last year’s weather was blown. In 2025, the best robot took 2 hours 40 minutes to complete the half marathon. This year, the fastest finished the 21 kilometers in 50’26.
Parallel journeys for humans and robots
In order to avoid collision, humans and robots ran on two parallel tracks. The winning robot, whose legs are 95 cm long, has a cooling system.
The best of them shone despite the presence of a hundred competitors. Congratulations, champ!
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