A Chinese humanoid robot has beaten Usain Bolt’s long-standing 100-metre world record, setting the stage for a spectacular second World Humanoid Robot Games that opened in Beijing on Saturday.
Tiangong Ultra clocked 9.39 seconds in the 100-metre sprint at the games, surpassing Bolt’s human world record of 9.58 seconds, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. The robot, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, narrowly defeated another humanoid, Honor’s Lightning, which finished in 9.47 seconds.
Lightning had already recorded an even faster 9.32 seconds during a trial run before the games. It reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second.
The record-breaking sprint was one of the highlights of the opening day of the five-day event, which is being held at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, a venue built for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games brings together 666 teams and 2,056 robots from 16 countries. The competition features 51 events and more than 1,000 matches across sports including running, football and table tennis, as well as other challenges designed to test the capabilities of humanoid machines.
Robots also surpassed another major human athletic benchmark. A humanoid developed by Beijing-based X-Humanoid reached 2.88 metres in the standing high jump, exceeding the human world record of 2.45 metres set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993.
The dramatic improvement in the 100-metre sprint is particularly striking. At last year’s inaugural games, Tiangong Ultra completed the same race in 21.50 seconds.
The rapid progress is part of China’s broader push to develop humanoid robots as a major emerging industry, with companies and policymakers investing heavily in artificial intelligence, robotics and advanced hardware for potential use in manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.
Despite the impressive performances, the robots still face challenges that human athletes have long mastered. After Saturday’s sprint, Tiangong Ultra stumbled, while Lightning collapsed and had to be removed on a stretcher, highlighting difficulties with balance and braking at high speeds.
The games run through August 26 and are showcasing the rapid evolution of humanoid robots while also testing how far the machines can perform in i
