Tiangong Ultra, the Chinese humanoid robot that beat Usain Bolt’s 100m record, barely made the human cut in a Half-Marathon last year

A year ago, Tiangong Ultra was struggling simply to finish a half-marathon. On Saturday, August 22, the Chinese humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, faster than Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt’s 9.58-second men’s world record.

The astonishing jump in speed is perhaps best understood by looking back at where Tiangong Ultra stood just a year earlier. In April 2025, the humanoid robot competed in the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon, an event that brought around 12,000 human runners and 21 humanoid robots onto the same race course, with humans and robots running in separate lanes.

Only six of the 21 robots finished the 13.1-mile race. Tiangong Ultra was the winner among the robots, but its performance was hardly comparable with that of the human runners. It completed the course in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, making it the only humanoid robot to finish within the human race's 3-hour-10-minute cutoff, as per a Wired report.


The robot also needed considerable human intervention along the way.

Barely finishing a half-marathon to breaking Bolt's record

Tiangong Ultra fell during the 2025 race and required three battery changes from human operators. Other robots suffered falls, overheating, mechanical breakdowns and other failures, with some disappearing from the live broadcast shortly after the start.

The machines were also accompanied by teams of human operators who helped with battery changes, controls, cooling and emergency repairs.

Some robots moved painfully slowly. Others reportedly spun in circles, crashed into walls or suffered mechanical failures. The event was as much a demonstration of the challenges of making humanoid robots run as it was a showcase of their potential, the outlet noted.

Tiangong Ultra nevertheless crossed the finish line. A year later, the same broad goal of making humanoid robots move like humans has produced a dramatically different result.

At the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Tiangong Ultra won its 100-meter preliminary heat in 9.39 seconds, according to Reuters, beating Bolt's 9.58-second record set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The robot wasn't even leading at first

The 100-meter race itself showed how different robotic sprinting remains from human athletics. Tiangong Ultra initially fell behind Lightning, a humanoid robot developed by smartphone maker Honor. It eventually overtook Lightning near the finish and crossed the line in 9.39 seconds.


Lightning finished in 9.47 seconds, also below Bolt's 9.58-second world record.

But neither machine celebrated as a human sprinter would. After reaching the finish, Tiangong Ultra stumbled dramatically toward the sidelines, forcing spectators to move out of the way. Lightning collapsed and had to be carried away on a stretcher.

Tiangong's 100-meter time nearly doubled in a year

The scale of the improvement becomes clearer when compared with the inaugural humanoid robot games.

In 2025, Tiangong Ultra won the 100 meters in 21.50 seconds. On Saturday, it ran the distance in 9.39 seconds. That means its recorded time improved by more than 12 seconds in roughly a year.

The development also comes after Tiangong Ultra won the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon in Beijing last year.

The progress is not limited to Tiangong Ultra. Lightning reportedly ran the 100 meters in 9.32 seconds during a preparatory test, reaching a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second, the news agency reported, citing Chinese state media.

Lightning also won this year's humanoid half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, a remarkable pace by human endurance standards.

Researchers had also modified the robot ahead of the competition. Lightning originally stood 169 centimeters tall and had 95-centimeter legs during last year's half-marathon. Its researchers later lengthened its legs by 10 centimeters, bringing the total to 1.05 meters.

The 2025 race showed how difficult running really is for robots

The contrast between the two events illustrates just how quickly humanoid robotics is evolving. When the Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon took place in April 2025, the robots were still struggling with basic endurance and reliability.

Of the 21 humanoid robots that started, only six completed the course. Tiangong Ultra's two-hour-40-minute finish was impressive largely because it remained operational long enough to complete the distance.

The robots faced problems that human runners rarely have to think about: battery endurance, overheating, mechanical failures, balance and the need for constant intervention.