Yes, you read that right — robots are now out here running marathons. Some of them were just 3ft 9in, others stood 5ft 9in, but they all had one thing in common: no wheels allowed — just pure bipedal hustle.

The winner? Tiangong Ultra — clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. For context, the actual human winner did it in just over an hour… but hey, baby steps for the bots.

According to Tang Jian, CTO of the Beijing Innovation Centre of Human Robotics (aka Tiangong’s creators), the robot's secret sauce was a mix of long legs and an algorithm that mimics human running mechanics.

“I don’t want to boast,” he said, before totally boasting, “but I think no robotics firms in the West have matched Tiangong’s sporting achievements.”

Bonus flex? They only had to swap the battery three times during the whole race. Efficiency goals.

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth running. One poor robot face-planted at the starting line and took a solid few minutes to reboot its pride before getting up and rejoining. Another went full chaos mode, crashed into a railing, and took its human operator down with it.

Robots may not be Olympic-ready yet… but give it a few years, and we might be live-streaming Boston 2032 with metal contenders.

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