The humanoid robots independently developed by Honor, China's leading smart device provider, swept the top three places at the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon on Sunday.
Honor's Qitian Dasheng team took the first place, its Leiting Shandian team finished second in 50 minutes and 56 seconds, and the Xinghuo Liaoyuan team claimed third with 53 minutes and one second.
The race kicked off at 07:30 in Beijing's Yizhuang District, also known as E-Town. It covers a total distance of 21.0975 kilometers, featuring two main categories of autonomous navigation and remote control. Robots from both categories competed on the same course, with results calculated using weighted coefficients of 1.0 and 1.2, respectively.
All the three podium finishers were competing under the autonomous navigation category.
Honor's senior engineer Yao Bin said the robots met pre-race expectations by completing the race without accidents or collisions.
"This is our No. 46 model. It finished the race with a time of 50 minutes and 56 seconds and serves as the main robot for our Leiting Shandian team. It only swapped batteries once at the 10.6-kilometer mark, after which it completed the entire course and crossed the finish line. It met our expectations," said Yao.
Over 100 humanoid robot teams and more than 12,000 human competitors competed in parallel during the half marathon.
Zhao Haijie, the men's half-marathon champion, shared his novel experience running alongside robots.
"In the first five kilometers, five to six robots ran past me. The robot in the red outfit had very heavy footsteps, and it was running incredibly fast. Its speed was much higher than mine," said Zhao.
Julio Rogelio Guadarrama Olvera, technical visionary and lead strategist of the Hail Mary Project at the Technical University of Munich, said he was impressed by the rapid growth of the humanoid robotics industry.
"They were actually very tough, you saw the winners, the winners are really impressive. So, also between the smaller teams, the university teams, all of them are actually quite good," he said.
Last year marked the inaugural humanoid robot half-marathon and featured only 20 teams. This year, that number rose to 100, including five foreign teams, while the humanoid robots demonstrated greater endurance, smoother gaits, and more stable algorithms.
Cai Jizheng, director of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area's robotics bureau, said this year's competition included several upgrades, with more complex racing tracks and terrain.
"Compared to last year, there are several key changes. First, the course remains 21 kilometers long, but the terrain is now more challenging. There are more turns. This year, there are 22 turns including 12 left and 10 right. Some of these turns are nearly 90 degrees. We have also added a mix of uphill and downhill sections, as well as ecological trails in the Nanhaizi Park," said Cai.
Honor's humanoid robots sweep top three places at 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon
Honor's humanoid robots sweep top three places at 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon
