Lightning humanoid robot runs 100 meters in 9.32 seconds to beat Usain Bolt’s record

A Chinese humanoid robot named Lightning has reportedly completed the 100-meter sprint in 9.32 seconds, beating Usain Bolt’s long-standing world record. Developed by smartphone maker Honor, the robot reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second during a test event in Beijing. The performance came ahead of the second World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG), which began on Saturday and features robots competing in various sporting events. The second edition of WHRG is slated to see participation surge 138 percent from last year, while the number of robots competing has doubled this year. Robot beats Bolt A Chinese humanoid robot named Lightning has reportedly completed the 100-meter sprint in 9.32 seconds, beating the men’s world record held by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. According to reports, Honor’s robot reached a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second during a test event ahead of the second WHRG in Beijing. Lightning’s reported time is 0.26 seconds faster than Bolt’s 9.58-second world record, set at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin. The performance highlights the growing focus on speed, balance and autonomous movement as Chinese companies and researchers push humanoid robots into increasingly demanding physical tasks, as reported by the Guardian. Earlier in the preliminary round, another Chinese humanoid robot reportedly ran the 100 meters faster than Usain Bolt’s world record. Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, clocked 9.39 seconds in the qualifying race at WHRG. During trials, a humanoid robot crashed dramatically into a padded barrier at WHRG. Footage shared online shows the unidentified biped sprinting at high speed before apparently failing to slow down near the end of the indoor track. The impact caused the robot to buckle sharply at the waist and collapse forward, while sparks flew from its frame. Honor’s speed machine Honor’s Lightning is a specialized high-performance humanoid robot designed to push the limits of bipedal speed, endurance, and autonomous movement. Rather than serving as a general-purpose machine, Lightning is engineered around long-distance running, real-time navigation and high-speed motion control. In April 2026, Lightning reportedly became the first humanoid robot to beat the human half-marathon world record, completing the 13-mile (21-kilometer) Beijing E-Town race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds while operating autonomously. A second, remotely controlled unit finished in 48 minutes and 19 seconds, demonstrating the platform’s mechanical capabilities. Lightning stands 169cm tall and uses an effective 95cm leg length inspired by elite human runners. For WHRG, researchers subsequently lengthened its legs by 10cm, apparently to improve its running performance. Its design incorporates long-stride biomechanics, arm movement for balance and torso stabilization. The robot reportedly produces up to 400 Nm of peak leg torque and uses a liquid-cooling system adapted from Honor’s smartphone thermal-engineering expertise, with a reported flow rate exceeding 4 liters per minute The system combines vision, inertial sensing, and terrain estimation for autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance, although Honor has not publicly disclosed its exact sensor configuration or degrees of freedom. Its battery capacity and weight also remain undisclosed. Lightning’s marathon performance demonstrates nearly an hour of sustained high-output locomotion in outdoor environments. The platform is intended primarily for high-speed robotics research, embodied AI development, autonomous navigation, and athletic-grade bipedal control, rather than broad consumer or industrial applications. Get the latest in engineering, tech, space & science - delivered daily to your inbox.Jijo is an automotive and business journalist based in India. Armed with a BA in History (Honors) from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, and a PG diploma in Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi, he has worked for news agencies, national newspapers, and automotive magazines. In his spare time, he likes to go off-roading, engage in political discourse, travel, and teach languages.