An autonomous humanoid robot built by Honor—the Chinese smartphone maker—won the 2026 Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on April 19, completing the 21-kilometer course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the approximately 57-minute human world record set by Jacob Kiplimo. A separate remotely-controlled Honor robot crossed the finish line first in 48:19, but the autonomous unit claimed the championship under the event's weighted scoring rules. The result marks a dramatic leap from last year's inaugural race, where the winner needed 2 hours and 40 minutes; over 100 teams competed this year—nearly five times last year's field—with roughly 40% using fully autonomous navigation. China's Global Times noted the event as evidence of the country's rapid scaling in embodied AI, with manufacturers like Leju Robotics producing more than 10,000 humanoid units per year.