The droid named Lightning finished the 21km race in just over 50 minutes, beating the human record by seven minutes on 19 April. Developed by smartphone giant HONOR, the android smashed the previous record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo.

Honor's "Lightning" android won the 2026 robot half marathon, smashing the human world record for the same distance. The robot is said to use the same cooling tech as Honor's smartphones. Honor might be best known for its smartphones,

THIS is the shocking moment a marathon-running robot smashed into pieces after tripping – before being dramatically carried away on a stretcher by a medical crew. The mechanical runner

More than 100 humanoid robot teams and 12,000 human runners took part in the world's second half-marathon for androids in Beijing, with multiple robots finishing the 21-kilometer race in less than one hour.

Experts generally agree that before humanoid robots can be widely deployed, they must first attend “vocational schools” to develop a functioning “brain”. Engineers describe humanoid robots as having three layers: a “brain” for perception and decision-making; a “cerebellum” for motion coordination; and a “body” equipped with motors and sensors.

The robot, named Lightning, ran almost 7 minutes faster than the human record, and beat the previous robot champ by nearly 2 hours.