A humanoid robot in China has broken sprinting legend Usain Bolt’s 100-metre world record, at a huge robot competition in Beijing on Saturday.
The robot ran the 100m in 9.39 seconds. That’s faster than Bolt’s record of 9.58 seconds, which had stood since 2009.
Another robot smashed a human jumping record too, leaping 2.88 metres from standing still. That beat the human record of 2.45m, set by Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor back in 1993. Both record-breaking robots were built by a Beijing company called X-Humanoid.
The records were set on the opening day of the World Humanoid Robot Games, where more than 2000 robots are taking part. The five-day event has 51 different events, including running, football and table tennis.
Sixteen countries are competing, including Germany, Japan and the United States.
China builds most of the world’s humanoid robots, but experts say the machines are still mostly used for shows and research, rather than everyday jobs.
“These sports are perfectly normal for humans, but now robots can do them. I find it amazing,” said spectator Yang Shangzheng.
Liu Tao, who watched the games with his son, said he was hoping to see “the best robots China currently has to offer.”
SMART Prep | Quick Question 
