On October 20, a special race transcending the limits of human endurance and intelligent technology was staged offline to great acclaim. HONOR's Global Chief Running Officer, famed Kenyan marathon runner Sabastian Sawe, and HONOR's Extreme Exploration Officer, China's leading trail runner Zhao Jiaju, met face-to-face offline for the first time with HONOR's self-developed humanoid robot "Lightning", engaging in a same-stage racing interaction and a cross-discipline dialogue on site.
The three 'runners' appearing together on this occasion each represent the ultimate in running ability within their respective fields. Sebastian Sauvé is the legendary athlete who was the first in human history to complete an official marathon in under 2 hours; Zhao Jiaju is the first Chinese Asian champion in the 330 km category of the 2026 Tor des Géants in Italy, having repeatedly pushed the boundaries of physical endurance in extreme natural environments; and 'Lightning', who joined them on stage, is the 'long-distance running champion' of the humanoid robot field.
At the 2026 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, held in April (month 4) of this year, "Lightning," a robot that had been under development for only 7 months, competed for the Great Sage Equipped with Heaven (Qi Tian Da Sheng) Team, winning the championship in the autonomous navigation category with a net time of 50 minutes 26 seconds, and robots from the Glory brand went on to sweep the top six places in the event. This achievement not only marked a breakthrough by humanoid robots over the human half marathon world record, but also concentratedly demonstrated their advanced endurance, heat dissipation, stable balance, and autonomous motion control capabilities in complex long-distance environments.
This cross-field collaboration actually has early origins. Back in May this year, when Savi was appointed Honor's Global Chief Running Officer, he already paid tribute to "Flash" from afar via video at an event. Savi said at the time that it took humanity 118 years of exploration to push the full marathon time under 2 hours, while "Flash" achieved its astonishing athletic performance with only 7 months of development, and he very much looked forward to standing on the starting line with this humanoid robot to compete and exchange skills.
From winning a half-marathon and breaking speed records, to now facing off head-to-head against top human athletes, the appearance of "Tiangong" on the same stage as two physical fitness superstars not only demonstrates the athletic evolution of embodied intelligence in the complex physical world, but also creates brand-new highlights for the exploration of integrating technology and sports.