Many marathon runners say they were deeply impressed by the significant surge in robots' running speed, as the 2026 Beijing E-town half-marathon adopted a mode of human runners racing alongside robots.
The race kicked off at 07:30 Sunday in southeastern 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 were racing on a same course, with results calculated using weighted coefficients of 1.0 and 1.2, respectively.
Honor's Qitian Dasheng team took the first place, its Leiting Shandian team finished the second in 50 minutes and 56 seconds, and the Xinghuo Liaoyuan team claimed the third with 53 minutes and one second.
Right next to the track where the humanoid robots were racing, the human half marathon was taking place at the same time, bringing together 12,000 participants.
"Last year, when I was racing against a robot on the track, I felt it was so slow, but this year I could probably only keep up with it for a few hundred meters. The robot has really made great progress this year, improving its 'personal best' by more than an hour," said a participant.
Meanwhile, there are also robots providing a variety of services along the track, including cheering, route navigation, litter collection and interactive performances, upgrading from "race tools" to "service partners." Robot guide dogs and service robots also made their debut at the event.
"(The robot guide dog) took me to the park and could smoothly guide me the whole way on the road," said a visually impaired person.
"Our role in this competition is to act as a robot supply service officer. At the supply points, robots will deliver towels and bottled water to participants. We hope that robots will be able to provide services in real-world application scenarios as soon as possible," said Zhang Yujia, marketing manager of Galaxea AI, a robotics and AI service company based in Beijing.
Half-marathon runners impressed by fast progress of robots running aside
Crowds of Tehran residents have been rallying every night since the outbreak of the war with the United States and Israel to voice support and show solidarity with their country during the wartime.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that a second round of talks between the United States and Iran would be held. However, Iran's Tasnim news agency said Sunday that Iran currently has no decision to send a negotiating delegation for peace talks with the United States as long as the U.S. "anti-Iran" naval blockade remains in place.
In a community in western Tehran, local residents were seen gathering at a rally site to voice support for the country.
Volunteers also participated in the gathering to offer practical help for those in need, providing food and medical services for free.
"We have been here every night for the past 40 days. There are many different booths. My field is psychology, and I work with children, so I offer help within my expertise. Whenever other assistance is needed, we cooperate. We've here since the very first beginning when the war occurred some 40 days ago, and when people started to rally on streets. The gatherings were pretty small at first. Gradually, more and more people came, and the activities became more diverse," said an instructor in psychology.
Seyed Mohammad Dehghi Mousavizadeh, a medical student at the Shahid Beheshti University, said he and his classmates would come to those rallies to provide medical help after the war broke out.
"Students are part of the people. We are here providing medical assistance, serving tea, and distributing food, as students involve in events of various fields. People from all walks of life are participating. Every night, people come to the streets and pray. They pray for the negotiators and for those on the frontlines. But the legitimate demands we want the U.S. to respond to are the people's rights, [including] the right to freedom, the right to peace, the right for a cancer patient to get medicine, the right to be free from sanctions, to have a good economy, and to see inflation go down. It is for these rights that the people have stood up," said Seyed.
"Today is my first day here. We are just doing what we feel we should do. We don't care what others (the U.S.) do. We are just doing our own thing spontaneously," said a volunteer.
Tehran residents rally to show support, solidarity in wartime
