-News : Praveen Carvalho, Barkur
Mangalore, February 2026— Roshan Lobo isn't slowing down. Participating at the Karnataka State Junior and Senior Classic Power Lifting Championship 2026 in Mangalore's Townhall (February 27–28), the 41-year-old powerlifter from Hosala Barkur has been handed an even bigger stage — a coveted berth at the All India Masters Championship 2026, scheduled for July 9–14 in Maharashtra and selected for Karnataka Powerlifting team to represent Karnataka in all India level.
Two national-level selections in the same breath. For most athletes, either would be a career highlight. For Lobo, it's the natural next chapter.
The Karnataka Powerlifting Association's confidence in him is well-earned. Over the past year, Lobo has quietly assembled one of the most consistent records in Karnataka masters powerlifting — state medals across classic and equipped formats, back-to-back bench press silvers within 48 hours of each other, and a national silver in Indore that first put the coastal Karnataka native on the country's radar.
What makes his trajectory unusual isn't the hardware — it's the circumstances behind it. Lobo holds a demanding job that keeps him on the move, often training in fragmented windows whenever he's back home at J.P. Gym Barkur, run by Nithin Poojari. Where other athletes rely on routine, Lobo has built a system around disruption — treating every compressed training block as an opportunity rather than a handicap.
At the February championship in Mangalore — his latest competitive outing before the national assignments — Lobo continued that form, adding further credibility to his All India selection in the 93 kg Masters-1 category (ages 40–49).
With the Maharashtra championship months away, Lobo now carries with him not just his own ambitions but the quiet pride of Barkur — a coastal town better known for temples and tides than podium finishes — and increasingly, a generation of young lifters who've watched him prove that geography and age are no limits at all.