Honor robot 'lightning' sets new world records in 1500m and 400m events

Honor's robot 'Lightning' has set new world records in both the 1500-meter and 400-meter events at the second World Humanoid Robot Athletics Championship. In the 1500-meter race, the robot completed the distance in 2 minutes and 30 seconds, surpassing the previous human world record. Earlier in the 400-meter event, 'Lightning' achieved a time of 40.6 seconds, also breaking the human world record. In April, 'Lightning' made history by winning the 2026 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon with a net time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds, outperforming the previous human men's half marathon world record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Ugandan athlete Kipruto. Honor's robots secured the top six positions in that event. Yao Bin, a research engineer involved in the project, revealed that the 'Lightning' robot was developed in just six months, undergoing numerous prototype iterations. He noted that while the top three robots had identical structures and algorithms, their race strategies were tailored for optimal performance. During the preparatory phase for the championship, 'Lightning' also completed a 100-meter test, achieving a time of 9.32 seconds and a peak speed of 14.5 meters per second, breaking the previous human 100-meter world record of 9.58 seconds.