Unitree’s H1 robot wins 1,500 metre race as China hosts world’s first humanoid games

China is hosting the world’s first-ever humanoid games, featuring contests that pit machines against each other in events such as basketball and kickboxing, as the country puts on a display of its ambitions in the rapidly growing sector.

Human-shaped bipedal robots from companies such as Unitree Robotics and X-Humanoid kicked off the event – officially known as the World Humanoid Robot Games – by competing in a 1,500-metre run in Beijing on Friday.

Chinese robotics darling Unitree, based in Hangzhou, was the clear winner in the first race, with its H1 humanoid securing first and third places.

Beijing-based X-Humanoid’s Tien Kung Ultra, which won the world’s first half-marathon featuring both human and robot runners in April, came in second.

The H1, priced at 650,000 yuan (US$90,526), was the same model that performed the Chinese folk dance Yangge at this year’s Spring Festival Gala, alongside a troupe of human dancers.

Unitree founder and CEO Wang Xingxing told local news portal Phoenix News that the performance of its H1 robots in the 1,500-metre race was “meaningful”, as the model was the first humanoid the company ever made.