On the outskirts of Beijing, a speed competition is going on. Multiple contestants wait on the line to begin the 13 mile run also known as the half marathon. Spectators await on the sides, eager to see who will take the glory and get gold. What the people don’t know is that this race will set a new world record, but not by who most would think: Lightning, a robot created specifically for this race, beat the human half marathon record by over 5 minutes by running just over 50 minutes. This beats out Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes

The marathon, Beijing E-Town Robot Half Marathon, took to the streets for their second annual race. Compared to last year, it was a huge improvement for robots. Last year, the robots didn’t do as hot as the human runners blew them out of the park. The robot winner only got a time of about 2 hours and 40 minutes while many other robots couldn’t finish the race or veered off the track while competing. Many creators were able to witness their robot finish. Many other people in the crowds were impressed by the results. 

The performance this year shows the sheer impact a year can make. Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker and the company behind the winner of the half-marathon, took a lot of time to come up with the framework of Lightning. It has legs around 37 inches and its own cooling system to help the robot stay at a fast pace with decreased chances of overheating. Du Xiaodi, Honor’s test development engineer, was very proud of the work and excited to see what could be in store in the future. 

“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas,” said Du. “It’s similar to how the automotive industry initially developed through competitions.”