A Robot Just Beat the Human Half-Marathon World Record – And It’s Not a Joke

In the last three days, one of the most striking events in robotics took place in Beijing: the second annual half-marathon for humanoid robots, held on April 19. The biggest sensation was a robot named “Flash” from Honor, which completed the 21.1 km course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds in autonomous navigation mode. That is six minutes faster than the current human world record, set by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo in March 2026. For comparison, last year the winning robot finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes, and only 6 out of 20 teams made it to the finish line.

This year, over 100 teams from 13 Chinese provinces and five countries, including Germany and Brazil, took part. The robots and 12,000 human runners moved along parallel tracks. The technological progress over the past year has been immense: battery swaps went from 5–6 changes lasting 3–4 minutes each to just one swap taking 10 seconds without rebooting the system. Joint overheating was reduced from 70–80°C to about 60°C using water and air cooling. About 40% of the robots operated in fully autonomous mode – almost none did last year.

There were also mishaps: one remotely controlled robot crashed into a barrier just meters from the finish line, and another needed help getting up after a fall. However, most robots picked themselves up and continued racing. The organizers stress that this is not a show but a serious testing ground for navigation, heat management, and durability – technologies that will eventually be used in industry, rescue operations, and logistics.