Humanoid Robots Race Past Human Records in Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon: HONOR Leads the Pack

Over 300 humanoid robots from 26 companies, including HONOR, Unitree, and Xiaomi, competed against approximately 12,000 humans in the second annual Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on April 19, 2026. Following full-scale pre-race tests in March and early April, this official scored event on the 21.0975 km Olympic Park course showcased China's robotics surge, with robots sweeping the podium and shattering the human world record of 57:20.

HONOR's "Lightning" (Qitian Dasheng) H1 model dominated in autonomous mode, clocking a net 50:26 after scoring adjustments (raw remote variant at 48:19), taking first, second, and third. Weighing 65 kg with 43 degrees of freedom, MagicMind AI, and LiDAR navigation, it handled crowds, inclines, and minor collisions flawlessly—40% of bots ran fully autonomous despite challenges like falls.