Humanoid robot wins half-marathon in China; beats world record - ESPN

A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record.

The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race kicked off.

That was faster than the human world record holder, Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race.

The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward from last year's inaugural race, during which the winning robot finished in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds.

But the competition, which was held alongside a race for humans, wasn't without hiccups -- one robot fell flat at the start line, another bumped into a barrier.

Spectators were impressed by the robots, including Sun Zhigang, who had been in the audience last year and watched Sunday's race with his son. "I feel enormous changes this year," Sun said.

"It's the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that's something I never imagined. " Wang Wen, who came with his family, said robots seemed to have stolen much of the spotlight from human runners in the event.

"The robots' speed far exceeds that of humans," he said. "This may signal the arrival of sort of a new era. " Beijing E-Town said about 40% of the robots navigated the course autonomously, while the others were remotely controlled.