The feat occurred at an even in Beijing that pitted robots against human runners. The humanoid robotics market is on the rise and could reach 1 billion machines by 2050. A 5′ 5″ bipedal robot named Lightning just crushed the human world record time for running a half marathon,

Chinese robots achieve 22 MPH speeds matching Olympic sprinters, with Unitree's H1 humanoid completing 100-meter dashes in 10 seconds flat.

China’s humanoid robot half marathon showed real gains in speed and autonomy, even if the race still revealed clear technical limits.

A year after mishaps dominated the race, Chinese humanoids are outrunning professional half-marathon athletes.