Beijing, the capital of China, has seen technological advances. Last year, robots competed in a half-marathon but were humiliated in defeat. But this year was different as a single robot stood out from the crowd. NBC News reported on Sunday, April 19, a bipedal humanoid named “Lightning” that was developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor had an outstanding race. Lightning dominated the field in the 13-mile race and finished in 50 minutes and 26 seconds. Not a single person among the 12,000 competitors could keep up. Lightning’s record was so impressive that it even passed the human world record for a half-marathon by 7 minutes. Officials said the robot’s time would have been faster, but it crashed into a railing near the end of the race. Even after Lightning’s recovery, the robot still made an epic finish. Honor’s robots took second and third-place medals on the podium. “I felt very nervous,” said Ma Huaze, captain of one of the winning Honor teams. “The biggest challenge was having the courage to perform and test large-scale upgrades on a major competitive stage like this.” Last year, only 21 robots competed in the race. A couple of the robots stumbled, and some didn’t even run. Only six managed to make it across the finish line. Officials said the fastest robot last year, Tiangong, finished the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes. As for humans, the fastest runner in this year’s half-marathon is 29-year-old Zhao Haijie, who said the robots were really on the move within the first 3 miles. Haijie completed the race in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 47 seconds. “I felt it was going quite fast,” Zhao said in an interview with NBC News after the race. “It just went whoosh right past me.” As technology advances, we will soon see more robots like Lightning. ...read more read less