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The performance came on the opening day of the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday
Tiangong Ultra’s 9.39-second run is particularly striking when compared with last year’s competition, when the same robot reportedly completed the 100 metres in 21.50 seconds. Representational image/AP
A Chinese humanoid robot has stunned spectators at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing after clocking 9.39 seconds in the 100-metre sprint, faster than Usain Bolt’s long-standing human world record of 9.58 seconds.
The performance came on the opening day of the second edition of the robot games on Saturday, August 22. The robot, Tiangong Ultra, was developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre and won its preliminary heat.
Bolt set the 9.58-second record at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, and it remains the official men’s 100-metre world record for human athletes.
Another Chinese robot had already gone faster
The Beijing race was not the first time a humanoid machine had crossed the 9.58-second mark.
Honor’s humanoid robot Lightning reportedly completed a 100-metre test run in 9.32 seconds, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second. In the official competition, however, Lightning finished the heat behind Tiangong Ultra with a time of 9.47 seconds.
The two performances highlight how rapidly robotic running technology has advanced.
Tiangong Ultra’s 9.39-second run is particularly striking when compared with last year’s competition, when the same robot reportedly completed the 100 metres in 21.50 seconds.
Robots are now competing across 51 events
The World Humanoid Robot Games are designed as an Olympics-style showcase for robotics, with machines competing in athletics, football, table tennis and other disciplines.
This year’s event features 2,056 humanoid robots representing 666 teams from 16 countries, with 51 events and more than 1,300 competitions scheduled.
Robots have also been tested in disciplines such as weightlifting and tug-of-war, while scenario-based contests are intended to demonstrate potential applications in logistics, hospitality and household services.
Why the Bolt comparison needs context
The headline-grabbing times do not mean Bolt’s world record has been officially broken in athletics.
Bolt’s 9.58 seconds remains the recognised human 100-metre world record. The robots are competing in a separate competition designed to test humanoid machines, using technology and conditions that are not governed by the rules of human athletics.
Still, the performances offer a striking measure of progress.
Just a year ago, a humanoid robot needed more than 21 seconds to complete the same distance. Now, Chinese-built machines are posting times below 10 seconds.
China’s bigger robotics race
The spectacular sprint is part of a much wider push by China to develop humanoid robotics as a strategic industry.
The Beijing games are intended not simply as entertainment but as a demonstration of advances in artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering, balance and autonomous movement.
For now, many humanoid robots remain primarily demonstration and research platforms. But the leap from a 21.50-second sprint to a sub-10-second run in just a year shows why the sector is attracting intense global attention—and why the race between humans and machines is becoming an increasingly literal one.
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Ask News18About the Author
Pathikrit Sen Gupta is a Senior Associate Editor with News18.com and likes to cut a long story short. He writes sporadically on Politics, Sports, Global Affairs, Space, Entertainment, And Food. He tra…Read More
August 23, 2026, 05:17 IST
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