Robot ‘athlete’ dubbed Usain Bot smashes Jamaican dash legend’s iconic 100m World Record

The Chinese humanoid, called Lightning, ran the distance in just 9.32 seconds – beating Usain Bolt’s 9.58 attempt, which he set 17 years ago in Germany

A robot named Lightning has smashed Usain Bolt’s 100m world record. The Chinese humanoid, created by smartphone firm Honor, ran the distance in just 9.32 seconds.

The time beat the 9.58sec men’s 100m world record set by Jamaican icon Usain 17 years ago in Germany. Onlookers were left stunned as the robo sprinter reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during ‌a test event for the World Humanoid Robot Games.

Li Yanfeng, an education worker who lives in Beijing, said: “At first, I wasn’t very accepting of artificial intelligence. I was even a bit resistant to it, because of the possibility that it might replace or displace humans.

“But now that I see this development is unstoppable, I decided to come and take a look.”

Yang Shangzheng, another spectator, added: “These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing.”

Meanwhile, Liu Tao, who was watching the games with his son, said he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer”.

It comes after Lightning won the Beijing half marathon in April in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, faster than the men’s world record. The robot stood 169cm tall and had 95cm-long legs for that race.

But boffins have now given him longer limbs ‌by 10cm for these Games. More than 2,000 robots were taking in the five-day event at the National Speed Skating Oval. There are 51 events and more than 1,000 competitions like table tennis, football and tug of war.

And 16 nations are involved including Germany, Japan and the US. Experts reckon the bots are still mostly used for demos, performances and research and it will take longer for them to be rolled out in the real world.