Robot Sprinters Beat Bolt's 100m Mark at Beijing Games
BEIJING, Aug 25 (Source Reporters) — A Chinese humanoid robot has run 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt's long-standing human world record, crossing the line in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, according to Reuters and multiple outlets covering the event.
By Source Reporters Newsdesk
Thu, 27 August 2026 · 1 min read
**BEIJING, Aug 25 (Source Reporters)** — A Chinese humanoid robot has run 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt's long-standing human world record, crossing the line in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday, according to Reuters and multiple outlets covering the event.
Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, won its heat at the opening of the games' second edition, overtaking smartphone maker Honor's "Lightning" robot near the finish. Lightning clocked 9.47 seconds, also inside Bolt's human record of 9.58 set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
Both machines ran into a thick mat designed to halt them after the line. Organisers did not immediately confirm official timings, and the marks are not recognised by World Athletics as human records; times are therefore treated here as reported, not ratified.
The result marks a sharp improvement on last year's inaugural games, when Tiangong Ultra won the same event in 21.50 seconds. This year's competition has drawn 2,056 robots from 666 teams across 16 countries, organisers said, up from 280 teams in 2025.
Bolt's 9.58 remains the official men's 100m world record.
**Sources:** Reuters via Google News, Newsbytes
**Sources:** Google News, newsbytesapp.com
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