News in Short

• A Chinese humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.
• Tiangong Ultra beat Usain Bolt’s human record of 9.58 seconds, set in 2009.
• Honor’s Lightning also finished ahead of Bolt’s record with a time of 9.47 seconds.
• The Beijing games feature 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries.

A Chinese humanoid robot has run 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. The time is faster than Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second human world record, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The robot, Tiangong Ultra, was developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center. It won its preliminary heat after overtaking Honor’s Lightning near the finish.

Lightning also crossed the line in 9.47 seconds. That means two robots in the same heat recorded times faster than Bolt’s human record.

However, the robots’ performances came with a chaotic finish. Tiangong stumbled into the sidelines after hitting the stopping mat, while Lightning collapsed and was taken away on a stretcher.

How fast was Tiangong Ultra compared with last year?

The improvement is striking.

Tiangong Ultra won the 100-meter race at last year’s inaugural games in 21.50 seconds. This year, it completed the same distance in 9.39 seconds.

That cuts more than 12 seconds from its previous winning time.

Honor’s Lightning had also posted a faster time before the competition. Chinese state media reported that the robot ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds during a preparatory test, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second.

Lightning has already demonstrated endurance as well. It won the humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing earlier this year in 50 minutes and 26 seconds.

What are the World Humanoid Robot Games?

The World Humanoid Robot Games are designed to test robots across both sports and practical tasks.

This year’s competition features 51 events, including football, dancing and industrial-task challenges. More than 2,000 robots are participating.

According to Reuters, the event has attracted 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries and six continents. That is a major increase from the 280 teams that competed during the inaugural event.

The games are being held at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval and run through Wednesday.

Why is China pushing humanoid robots?

China has identified humanoid robotics as a strategic emerging industry. The country is investing heavily in technologies that could eventually support manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.

The growing interest is also visible in China’s financial markets. Unitree, one of the country’s best-known humanoid robot makers, saw its shares surge more than fivefold during its Shanghai trading debut earlier this week. The company reached a market value of around $50 billion.

Still, speed is only one measure of a humanoid robot’s capabilities. The Beijing games also include practical challenges designed to test how robots handle tasks closer to real-world work.

The 9.39-second run shows how quickly robotic hardware and control systems are advancing. But the bigger test for humanoid robots will be whether they can take that progress beyond the track and perform useful tasks reliably in the real world.