A humanoid robot named ‘Lightning’ blazed through a Beijing race in just 50 minutes and 26 seconds, setting a new world record for half-marathons.

The four Lightning robots that finished in less than an hour completely outshone the 12,000 human competitors. Notably, they even broke the existing human record of 57 minutes and 20 seconds set by Ugandan runner Jacob Kiplimo.

At last year's race, only six robots managed to complete the half-marathon. This year, with 300 robots from 102 teams competing, 47 were able to finish, including 18 autonomous models and 29 remotely controlled ones. The fastest human runner took nearly 20 minutes longer than Lightning.

According to The Associated Press, the second and third place robots also belonged to the Lightning family, completing their runs in 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively. Meanwhile, a remote-controlled Lightning took first overall with an impressive time of 48 minutes and 19 seconds.