The humanoid robot "Shandian" (Lightning) belonging to the "Qitian Dasheng" team crossed the finish line first in the Beijing International Half Marathon on Sunday, covering a distance of 21 kilometers in a time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds.
According to the organizers, this time surpasses the human world record for the half marathon, which is 56 minutes and 42 seconds.
In human races, Chinese athletes won with a time of 1 hour, 7 minutes and 47 seconds for men and 1 hour, 18 minutes and 6 seconds for women.
This year's Beijing Half Marathon saw the participation of approximately 12,000 people, in addition to some 300 humanoid robots, presented by more than 100 teams, including five foreign teams. Nearly 40% of the teams used autonomous robots, while 60% used remotely controlled robots. The robots raced alongside the human runners, but on a designated course.
In 2025, the Chinese Athletics Association officially classified the half marathon as an AI competition. The event, which this time proceeded without any significant technical glitches, received extensive international media coverage.
The half marathon was held in ideal weather conditions, as the second half of April in Beijing is one of the most temperate times of the year, with the cold weather having passed and before the heat intensifies.
The race featured intelligent machines of varying weight classes. According to the rules, the shortest robot had to be at least 75 cm long, and the tallest no longer than 1.8 meters.
The world's first half marathon featuring humanoid robots was held in southeast Beijing on April 19, 2025. Out of more than 20 intelligent robots, "Tiangong 1.2 Max" (1.8 meters tall and weighing 52 kilograms) took first place, recording a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes.
