Watch | Robots Leave Humans in the Dust in Beijing Half-Marathon Shocker

Chinese-made humanoid robots displayed rapidly improving athletic capabilities at a half-marathon race in Beijing on Sunday, outpacing human runners in a striking turnaround from last year’s debut event.

The inaugural edition of the race had been plagued by mishaps, with most robots unable to finish.

The winning robot last year clocked 2 hours 40 minutes, well ahead of its machine competitors but more than twice the time recorded by the human winner of the conventional race, according to a Reuters report.

This year, however, performance levels improved dramatically. The winning humanoid, developed by teams from Honor, a well-known Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21-kilometre race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, as per a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began.

The robot stumbled just metres from the finish line after crashing into a railing but was helped back up to complete the race.

Even with the fall, its time was faster than the human world record holder, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race.

Participation in the event also saw a significant rise, with more than 100 teams competing compared to 20 last year.

Several robot frontrunners were notably quicker than professional athletes, surpassing the human winners by over 10 minutes.

To prevent collisions, robots and human runners competed on parallel tracks.

Nearly half of the robot participants were able to navigate the challenging terrain autonomously, unlike last year when most relied on remote control.

Despite the improvements, the race was not without incidents. One robot fell at the start line, while another collided with a barrier during the course.

Teams from Honor, a Huawei spin-off, secured all three podium positions with self-navigating robots that posted times surpassing human world records.

According to Beijing E-Town, around 40 per cent of the robots operated autonomously, while the remainder were remotely controlled.

State media outlet Global Times reported that a separate remotely controlled robot from Honor was the first to cross the finish line in 48 minutes and 19 seconds.

However, the autonomous robot was awarded the championship under the event’s weighted scoring system.

Du Xiaodi, an Honor engineer on the winning team, said its robot was in development for a year and featured legs measuring 90 to 95 cm to replicate elite human runners, along with liquid cooling technology adapted from its smartphones.

While the economic applications of humanoid robots are still in the trial phase, the race highlighted their growing physical capabilities and potential to transform fields ranging from hazardous work environments to battlefield operations.