{"id":43497,"date":"2026-08-22T14:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43497"},"modified":"2026-08-22T14:37:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:37:48","slug":"chinese-robot-beats-usain-bolts-100m-world-record-in-test-run","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/chinese-robot-beats-usain-bolts-100m-world-record-in-test-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese robot beats Usain Bolt\u2019s 100m world record in test run"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">A humanoid robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor ran 100 metres in 9.32 seconds, China\u2019s state broadcaster reported on Saturday, beating the human world record held by Jamaican sprinting great Usain Bolt.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The robot, dubbed Lightning, reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during a preparatory test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which opened in Beijing on Saturday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The performance surpassed the 9.58-second men\u2019s 100-metre world record set by Bolt at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>China has been promoting humanoid robots as a strategic emerging industry, with policymakers and companies betting that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and hardware will accelerate their deployment in manufacturing, logistics and consumer applications.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Lightning also won the 21km Beijing half marathon in April in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the elite men\u2019s human world-record pace.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The robot stood 169cm tall and had 95cm legs at the half marathon.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Researchers have since lengthened its legs by 10cm to 1.05m ahead of the World Humanoid Robot Games, China Central Television reported.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32424,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-43497","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The robot stood 169cm tall and had 95cm legs at the half marathon.","published_date":"","news_description":"The robot stood 169cm tall and had 95cm legs at the half marathon.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43498,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43497\/revisions\/43498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}