The 2026 Beijing Yizhuang Humanoid Robot Half Marathon got underway on April 19, with Honor’s “Lightning” sweeping the gold, silver and bronze medals. More than 100 teams entered the race, and nearly 40 percent of the robots were equipped with autonomous navigation. The event adopted a weighted scoring system, with a coefficient of 1.0 for the autonomous navigation group and 1.2 for the remote-controlled group.
Team Qitiandasheng, Team Leitingshandian and Team Xinghuoliaoyuan finished first, second and third with net times of 50:26, 50:56 and 53:01 respectively. All three teams used the autonomous navigation version of Honor's "Lightning" robot. The model features a mecha-style design, an effective leg length of 0.95 meters, and self-developed integrated joint modules.
It is worth noting that the winning time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds by “Lightning” surpassed the men‘s half marathon world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds, which was set by Ugandan star Jacob Kiplimo at the Lisbon Half Marathon in March.
In addition, the Unitree H1 autonomously completed a 1.9-kilometer winding qualifying course in 4:13, which proportionally breaks the human 1,500-meter world record.
The scale of the event has risen sharply compared with last year, reflecting that the humanoid robot industry is accelerating its progress toward autonomous applications.
