Tiangong Ultra Runs 100m in 8.64, Under Bolt's Mark

Even though this is a robots championship, we thought this fits in our news.

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Tiangong Ultra broke its own 100-metre record for a third time in one week, winning the large-size robot final at the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing in 8.64 seconds. The time put the Chinese humanoid nearly a full second under Usain Bolt’s human world record of 9.58 seconds.

Three records in five days

The progression on the track inside the National Speed Skating Oval was relentless. Tiangong Ultra opened the Games with a 9.39-second heat. It lowered the mark to 8.86 in the semifinal, then pulled clear under the closing-night lights for the 8.64-second final.

A comeback built on top-end speed

Its closest rival, Honour’s Lightning, pushed the pace early. Tiangong trailed out of the start — a pattern its engineer, Guo Yijie, recognised. “Tiangong’s start and acceleration are currently slower than Lightning, but its top-end speed is higher, allowing it to close and overtake in the back half of the race,” he told reporters afterwards.

The race ended less gracefully than it ran. Both machines slammed into the stop-mat beyond the line. Tiangong stumbled wildly into the sideline while Lightning collapsed and was carried away on a stretcher.

From 21.50 to 8.64 in one year

At the inaugural Games in 2025, Tiangong won the same event in 21.50 seconds. More than 2,000 robots from 666 teams entered 51 events this year. One humanoid cut its own sprint time by more than half in twelve months.

The men’s 100-metre world record has belonged to a human since the modern Games began. In Beijing last week, a bipedal machine ran a time no sprinter has approached.