Xinhua reported that a humanoid robot clocked 9.39 seconds in the 100 metres during the opening of the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on Saturday, faster than Usain Bolt’s 9.58 [E1]. Global Times named the machine as Tien Kung Ultra, from Beijing-based X-Humanoid, and put the standing high jump at 288.43 centimetres [E2]. CGTN described the jump as a demonstration ahead of the opening, and the 9.39 as a preliminary heat [E3]. Last year’s best at the games was 21.50 seconds [E2].
Honor’s Lightning is reported at 9.32 seconds in a preparatory run the same day, not the competition heat [E4]. Some accounts put a second robot in the 9.39 heat at 9.47 [E2][E4]. Pre-event rules material associated with the games borrows Chinese Athletics Association practice: standing start, no blocks, time when any part of the trunk reaches the finish plane [E2]. Taishan Sports supplied a track mixed for robot mass, hardness and friction, with impact mats at the end of sprint lanes [E2]. Remote control incurs penalties in some scenario events; autonomy during the exact 9.39 and 2.88 performances was not independently confirmed [E2][E3].
The comparison with human world records is a marketing frame, not a ratification [E1][E2]. Leg length on Lightning had already been adjusted about 10 centimetres relative to an April half-marathon configuration [E4]. The surface is not a World Athletics-certified human track [E2]. Timing method, wind, mass and whether a human operator was in the loop are not in an open technical package [E1][E2][E3]. DPA noted post-sprint crashes into safety barriers [E5]. The official site, whrgoc.com, posted some scenario results on 22 August but did not surface a full athletics table with lane assignments by the freeze [E1][E2].
What Saturday demonstrates is that these platforms completed timed 100-metre runs and a standing clearance above 2.8 metres inside the venue, on a purpose-built surface, with numbers announced by state media and accompanied by CCTV footage [E1][E2][E3]. What it does not demonstrate is a human-comparable athletic record. No World Athletics pathway exists for the mark [E1][E5].
Finals still sit inside the games window through 26 August [E2][E3]. Whether X-Humanoid or Honor publishes mass, standing height, leg length and autonomy mode for the Saturday runs is a later clock [E2][E4]. The 22 August record is the announced 9.39 and 2.88, and the absence of an independent metrology note [E1][E2][E3].