# Honor's 'Lightning' humanoid robot smashes half-marathon world record

_Monday, April 20, 2026 at 2:10 PM EDT · AI, Tech & Business · Latest · Tier 1 — Major_

![Honor's 'Lightning' humanoid robot smashes half-marathon world record — Primary](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/gettyimages-2272016738.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.194157319515%2C100%2C79.611685360969&w=1200)

An autonomous humanoid robot named "Lightning" completed a 13-mile race in Beijing on Sunday in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating both the previous robot record and the human world record.

Developed by engineers at smartphone company Honor, the scarlet robot finished the half-marathon in less than half the time of last year's fastest robot, which took two hours and 40 minutes. Lightning not only defeated all 12,000 human runners but also surpassed the human world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

Du Xiaodi, one of the engineers who developed Lightning, said the robot was in development for a year and features legs measuring 90 to 95 centimeters (35 to 37 inches) designed to mimic elite human runners. The robot incorporates liquid cooling technology similar to that used in Honor's smartphones.

Four Lightning robots completed the race in under an hour, with the autonomous version awarded first place overall. The fastest human runner finished almost 20 minutes behind Lightning with a time of one hour, seven minutes, and 47 seconds.

This year's race featured 300 robots from 102 teams, with 47 teams completing the course. The results mark a significant improvement from last year, when only six out of 21 robots managed to finish the half-marathon.

## Sources

- [The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/tech/914869/humanoid-robot-half-marathon-record)

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Retrieved: 2026-04-20T22:00:12.944Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)