At the second edition of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a humanoid robot has accomplished what no human has done since Usain Bolt set the standard in 2009: breaking the 100-metre barrier.

Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, sprinted 100 metres in 9.39 seconds during a preliminary heat on Saturday — nearly two-tenths of a second faster than Bolt's iconic 9.58-second record set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

The robot overtook Honor's Lightning near the finish after falling behind early in the race. Lightning finished second in 9.47 seconds — also faster than Bolt's record. In a preparatory test, Lightning had reportedly clocked 9.32 seconds with a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second.

Neither robot matched Bolt's graceful finish: both slammed into a thick mat designed to stop them, with Tiangong stumbling wildly into the sidelines while Lightning collapsed and was carried away on a stretcher.

The results mark a dramatic leap from last year's inaugural games, where Tiangong Ultra won the 100 metres in 21.50 seconds. Lightning also won this year's humanoid half-marathon in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the pace of the elite men's human world record.

This year's games, held at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, have drawn 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries and six continents — a massive increase from the 280 teams at the inaugural event. The games run through Wednesday and include 51 events from football and dancing to industrial-task contests.

The spectacle underscores China's bet on humanoid robots as a strategic industry. Earlier this week, Unitree Robotics — China's best-known humanoid robot maker — saw its shares jump more than fivefold in its Shanghai trading debut, giving the company a market value of roughly $50 billion.

Sources