China's Tiangong Robot Shatters Human Sprint Records at Beijing Games

China’s Tiangong Ultra humanoid robot completed a 100-metre sprint in an astonishing 8.86 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Tuesday. This impressive feat lowered the previous 9.39-second mark set by the machine at the event's opening, and outpaced the 9.58-second men’s human world record established by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt in 2009.

Developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, the robot achieved this milestone during the semifinal of the large-size robot division. The rapid evolution of these machines has been a primary highlight at the second edition of the Beijing event, which features more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams competing across 51 diverse categories, including football, dancing, and industrial tasks.

Last year, during the inaugural games, Tiangong won the 100-metre race with a much slower time of 21.50 seconds. This followed its victory at the world’s first humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing with an amateur-level time of 2 hours 40 minutes. Li Hui, a 26-year-old engineer with Fudan University’s table-tennis team, noted that witnessing a motor-powered robot run faster than a human during training offers a completely different perspective on their capabilities.

To complete the sub-nine-second sprint, the machine had to strike a thick mat placed beyond the finish line to bring it to a halt, which caused a small fire in its torso after it collapsed from the impact. In another semifinal match, a competing robot disassembled mid-race.

Prior to this, Tiangong secured an opening-day win on Saturday by overtaking Honor's Lightning near the finish line. Lightning recorded a time of 9.47 seconds—also eclipsing Bolt's record—after smartphone maker Honor had previously clocked a faster 9.32-second time in a test run.

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center reported that its Tiangong models have already surpassed four human world records. In addition to the 100m sprint, the achievements include a 400m time of 38.15 seconds, a 1,500m mark of 2 minutes 21.64 seconds, and a 2.88-metre-high jump. Corporate data provider Qichacha notes that the centre's shareholders include state-owned enterprises, various investment funds, AI and cloud giant Baidu, as well as smartphone and EV manufacturer Xiaomi's robotics unit. Meanwhile, China continues to prioritize humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry to drive applications in manufacturing, logistics, and services.