Engineering:Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon

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Short description: Road race with robots

Template:Infobox athletics race The Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon (Chinese: 北京亦庄半程马拉松) is an annual half-marathon held in Beijing and organized by Beijing E-Town. It features a parallel race for humanoid robots alongside human runners. At the inaugural event in 2025, there were few robot competitors with total of 21 robots from teams nationwide, and their performance was inadequate, with only one finishing within the 3 hour 10 minute time limit. In 2026, there were over 300 robots, and the best surpassed the human field of more than 12,000 runners, beating the human world record by about 7 minutes.

2025

The first race was held on 19 April 2025, after being postponed by six days due to strong winds.[1] Although around 12,000 human participants took part, only 21 humanoid robots competed. Most of the robots performed poorly, with many overheating and falling during the race. All required human assistance from their trainers, including control guidance, battery replacements, cooling sprays, and even duct tape repairs.[2][3][4]

Only six robots managed to finish the course. The winning robot was Tiangong Ultra, from the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, with a time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, compared to the men's winner of the race with a time of 1 hour and 2 minutes.[5] It required three battery changes and fell once, but was the only robot to finish within the 3 hour 10 minute time limit.[3][4] The second and third places were taken by robotic participants from Beijing's Noetix Robotics.[6]

Humanoid robots
Place Robot Name Team Developer Time Category
1st Tianggong Ultra Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center 2 hours 40 minutes Remote-controlled
2nd N2 Xiao Wantong Team Noetix Robotics 3 hours and 37 minutes

(exceeding the time limit)

Autonomous
3rd N2 Whirlwind Kid Team Noetix Robotics (exceeding the time limit) Remote-controlled

2026

Rule changes

Following the experience of the first event, the rules were changed for the 2026 event. The main change was to encourage the robots to be autonomous rather than remote-controlled. If the robot was guided by human remote-control then its finishing time would be multiplied by 1.2.[7]

Up to three battery changes were allowed for the robots. If the battery change was made on the course then there was no time penalty beyond the time required for the work. If the battery change was made off-course then there would be a time penalty. Robots could be replaced if they failed but there was a 15-minute time penalty for the first replacement and 20 minute penalty for the second.[7]

The robots were arranged in a Z-shaped starting formation and released at 1-minute intervals to minimise the risk of collision or other interference. This separation was maintained through the race as robots were required to stay 5 metres apart.[7]

2026 results

In 2026, the race was held on 19 April over a course of 21.0975 kilometres from Tongming Lake Park to Nanhaizi Park in the Daxing district of southern Beijing.[8] There were over 12,000 human runners and over 300 humanoid robots which ran on a parallel course for safety.[9] The top three places were won by robots made by Honor, which also makes consumer electronic products such as smartphones.[9]

The winner was a Lightning-model robot that finished in a time of 50:26 minutes, which is significantly faster than the human world record of 57:20 minutes which was set by Jacob Kiplimo at the Lisbon Half-Marathon in March.[9][10] Another robot from Honor finished even quicker in 48:19 minutes but the event's handicapping rules penalised it for using human remote control rather than fully autonomous navigation like the winning robot, and so its time was increased by 20%.[11][3] The second-place robot crashed into a barrier close to the finish and had to be helped up by humans to resume running.[11]

2026 was the first time that robots surpassed humans in such a mass race and this impressed commentators and spectators as heralding the start of a new era in robot technology.[3]

Autonomous Humanoid robots
Place Robot Name Team Developer Time Category Ref.
1st Lightning Qitian Dasheng Team Honor 00:50:26 Autonomous [3]
2nd Lightning Leiting Shandian Team Honor 00:50:56 Autonomous [12]
3rd Lightning Xinghuo Liaoyuan Team Honor 00:53:01 Autonomous [12]
Remote-controlled Humanoid robots
Place Robot Name Team Developer Time Category Ref.
1st Lightning Jueying Chitu Team Honor 00:48:19 (raw time before 20% handicap) Remote-controlled [13]
Humans
Place Sex Name Time Ref.
1st Men Zhao Haijie 1 hour 7:47 minutes [14][15]
2nd Yan Ruiyang 1 hour 7:51 minutes [15]
3rd Chen Zhicheng 1 hour 9:46 minutes [15]
1st Women Wang Qiaoxia 1 hour 18:06 minutes [14][15]
2nd Yang Xiaoli 1 hour 20:14 minutes [14][15]
3rd Zhang Xiaomin 1 hour 22:01 minutes [14][15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Eduardo Baptista (10 April 2025), World's first humanoid robot half marathon postponed due to windy weather, Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/technology/worlds-first-humanoid-robot-half-marathon-postponed-due-windy-weather-2025-04-10/ 
  2. ↑ "China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon for first time" (in en-GB), The Guardian, 19 April 2025, ISSN 0261-3077, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/apr/19/china-pits-humanoid-robots-against-humans-in-half-marathon-for-first-time, retrieved 25 April 2026 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Liu Zheng (19 April 2026), Humanoid robot wins Beijing half-marathon, defeating the human world record, PBS, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/humanoid-robot-wins-beijing-half-marathon-defeating-the-human-world-record 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yang, Zeyi (19 April 2025), "Stumbling and Overheating, Most Humanoid Robots Fail to Finish Half-Marathon in Beijing" (in en-US), Wired, ISSN 1059-1028, https://www.wired.com/story/beijing-half-marathon-humanoid-robots/ 
  5. ↑ "China pits humanoid robots against humans in half-marathon" (in en-US), Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-pits-humanoid-robots-against-humans-half-marathon-2025-04-19/, retrieved 25 April 2026 
  6. ↑ (in en) Noetix Robotics | Brand Events & Robot Industry Activities, https://www.noetixrobotics.com/, retrieved 25 April 2026 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 How can a robot complete a half marathon of 21 kilometers?, 36Kr, 20 April 2026, https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3774636894388739#:~:text=Rule%20upgrade%3A%20Autonomous%20navigation%2C%20the,of%20the%20autonomous%20navigation%20category. 
  8. ↑ 2026 Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon and Humanoid Half-Marathon, Administrative Committee of Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, 2026, https://www.beijingetown.com.cn/topic/2026marathon 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Andrew Gregory (19 April 2026), "Humanoid robots show rapid advances as they race past humans in Beijing half marathon", The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/apr/19/humanoid-robots-race-beijing-half-marathon 
  10. ↑ Carbajal, Javier (20 April 2026), "A Humanoid Robot Set a Half-Marathon Record in China", Wired, https://www.wired.com/story/a-humanoid-robot-set-a-half-marathon-record-in-china/ 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Honor's Humanoid Robot Shandian Surpasses Human Half-Marathon Record" (in en), The Chosun Daily, 19 April 2026, https://www.chosun.com/english/world-en/2026/04/20/MT6SIGKK7JCHDCZHWDWHXLY4T4/ 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Honor's humanoid robots sweep top three places at 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon", Bastille Post, 19 April 2026, https://www.bastillepost.com/global/article/5788649-honors-humanoid-robots-sweep-top-three-places-at-2026-beijing-e-town-half-marathon 
  13. ↑ Zhang Jingwei (20 April 2026), Yizhuang Half Marathon: Robots Speed Up, and the "Falling" Story Continues, 36Kr, https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3774980854268424 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "Humanoid robot surpasses human half-marathon world record in Beijing" (in en), Xinhua, 19 April 2026, https://english.news.cn/20260419/ecdd1f0b399e41749dd7adf03637fb30/c.html 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 "Humanoid robot surpasses human half-marathon world record in Beijing" (in en), Xinhua, 19 April 2026, https://english.news.cn/20260419/74fc74a78dc64d959fbd4c1f244f6561/c.html 



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