Chinese humanoid robot Tiangong Ultra runs 100 metres in 8.86 seconds at Beijing games

A Chinese humanoid robot named Tiangong Ultra ran 100 metres in 8.86 seconds on August 25, 2026 at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. The time improved on the 9.39 seconds the same robot recorded in a preliminary heat three days earlier and sits well below the human men’s world record of 9.58 seconds set by Usain Bolt in 2009.

The race took place in the large-size robot division at the National Speed Skating Oval. Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, finished ahead of competitors including models from smartphone maker Honor.

Organisers reported that the robot reached the mark in a semi-final. Earlier in the week the same platform and a rival from Honor had already posted times under Bolt’s record. Honor’s Lightning had recorded 9.32 seconds in a pre-event test and 9.47 seconds in competition.

The Beijing centre stated that its Tiangong robots had broken four human world records at the games: the 100 metres, a 400 metres time of 38.15 seconds, a 1,500 metres mark of 2 minutes 21.64 seconds, and a standing high jump of 2.88 metres.

The improvement over one year is sharp. At the inaugural games in 2025, Tiangong Ultra won the 100 metres in 21.50 seconds. Hardware changes, longer legs on some models, and refined control software account for the gains.

Robots still stop by slamming into padded barriers and often fall. Human handlers carry them off the track. The spectacle underscores both the speed of progress and the remaining gap between laboratory performance and reliable real-world locomotion.

China has made humanoid robotics a national priority. The games, now in their second year, feature more than 2,000 robots from hundreds of teams competing in running, jumping, football, table tennis and industrial tasks. Parallel events at the World Robot Conference showcased thousands of products aimed at manufacturing, logistics and consumer use.

Researchers outside China note that the records are set under controlled conditions on flat tracks. Translating the same performance to uneven surfaces, stairs or long-duration work remains an open engineering problem. Power density, balance recovery and thermal management continue to limit continuous operation.

Still, the 8.86-second mark demonstrates that bipedal robots can now exceed elite human sprint times in straight-line running. The result adds to a series of Chinese claims in humanoid locomotion that have drawn global attention to the country’s investment in the field.

The games continue through the week with further events. Whether the times hold under independent verification or translate into practical applications will be watched closely by robotics laboratories worldwide.