Two Rivals. One Weight Class. One Week Left.

One week before the Senior National Classic Powerlifting Championship 2026 — 300-plus athletes descending on Mangaluru from March 24 to 28 — two of the deepest field's realistic podium contenders sat down together. Not after the meet. Before it, while both totals were still unknown.

In episode 3 of The Third Attempt, Harish and Parth Mehta talk through the reckoning moments that got each of them here, and by the end, both name the numbers they're chasing at Nationals.

Two Very Different Paths Into 93kg

Harish has been lifting for 11 years — equipped meets, injuries, a stretch where he treated it as "recreational lifting" while working as a software engineer, and a humiliating placement in Group B at 2022 Nationals that reset everything. His college gym welded its own plates from scrap metal and built squat racks out of machinery wood; "we never had that in the mind, that is not the excuse," is how he describes training through it. He's now voluntarily moving up from 83kg — where he holds a 2x national championship — into 93kg, India's deepest field.

Parth Mehta found the sport by accident three years ago: a chance meeting with the Gurgaon district powerlifting secretary in a physiotherapist's waiting room, a WhatsApp group, a district meet entry. He's 24, and he already holds the junior open 93kg deadlift national record at 329kg.

"There are many guys in the sport, you see them come and then they just disappear. They would just do their debut, their totals are crazy, and then next year they're not there anymore. In this sport, it's more about who stays for the longest time." — Parth, on why he trusts his own longevity over anyone's hot streak

Why Harish Is Leaving 83kg on Purpose

Harish's move isn't sentimental — it's arithmetic. At 87-88kg bodyweight, making 83kg meant working closely with his nutritionist on harsh weight cuts and constant cardio, just to stay in class. "I could not see myself doing 820 or 830 total at 83 with these calories," he says — there was no path to the total he wanted without wasting his prime competitive years on the cut itself. At 93kg, he projects a 900kg total within two to three years, with less of his training budget spent fighting the scale.

He's not chasing a specific number at this Nationals, though. "The moment we say that numbers and chase that mark, it will be permutations," he says of what happens when a lifter fixates on a total instead of execution — his actual goal is going 9-for-9 and letting the number fall out of that. He does have a floor in mind: the standing 93kg national record, 766kg, is one he considers too low. "At least two or three people gonna break it. Definitely I go that, not thinking anything below that."

The 329kg Deadlift Nobody Told Him About

Parth's national record has a stranger origin story than most records do. At the 2025 Junior Nationals, already ahead on his second attempt, his handlers loaded his third pull without telling him the number had changed from an agreed 325kg to 329kg.

"I saw the number. They called my name, next lifter, and these guys, they loaded 329. And I'm seeing on that board, on that TV that it's 329. And I got so scared, like, man, what is this? Like, why is it happening?" — Parth, on finding out mid-walkout that his attempt had been bumped past anything he'd pulled before

He pulled it. He was so certain his grip would fail that when it held at lockout, he couldn't bring himself to put it down — he just stood there holding it. He found out afterward the number was never needed to win; his handlers loaded it because they believed he could do it, not because the scoreboard demanded it. He also didn't know, in the moment, that it sat 2kg below the Asian record.

Harish, who has watched two of Parth's meets and trained alongside him once, calls this the tell of a genuinely mature lifter: "Whatever the numbers he does in training, he will do more in the meet. Most of the cases in Indian scenario it is quite opposite" — lifters blast numbers in prep with no strategy, then underdeliver on the platform. Pulling a personal-best-by-14kg deadlift under win pressure, with a prior misgrip already behind him that meet, is what Harish points to as the real signal.

What Both of Them Actually Want the Sport to Fix

Unprompted, both lifters raise the same concern about how the sport polices itself — Harish naming the standard he tries to hold regardless of what shortcuts other competitors take, and pointing at a mindset problem more than an enforcement one: lifters at the local level assuming any strong total must be chemically assisted, instead of crediting the program behind it. Both frame this as something the sport's credibility depends on getting right as it grows, not as an accusation aimed at anyone in this field.

The Numbers, Named

By the end, both lifters commit to a target. Parth puts his out first: "My goal is to total 800. Let's see how much I'm able to reach there near 800, or even if 800 happens." Pressed again near the close of the conversation, he narrows that to a 790 to 800kg range. Harish, pressed on his own number, gives a range rather than refusing outright this time: 770 to 790kg. Whichever of them is closer, both walk into Mangaluru knowing exactly what the other said on record, one week out.

Read the TranscriptExpandCollapse

Lightly edited for readability from the recorded conversation.

On the equipment Harish's college team trained with:

Harish: We had plates available till 110kg. When we wanted to go more, we collected scrap material and welded them ourselves. Deadlift platforms out of machinery wood, 10kg gym barbells until our final year. We never had that in the mind — that is not the excuse. We used to enjoy the lifting.

On the moment that changed Harish's approach to the sport:

Harish: At Chandrapur Nationals, competing at 93kg in Group B — that's the lighter-standard flight. I looked at my 2019 peers, Ankit Kamble, Rajat Rawat, Tanveer — they were the stars at that meet, and I wasn't. That's when I decided: stop this recreational-lifter tag. I changed gyms, hired a coach, invested in diet, bought my own knee sleeves instead of borrowing someone else's on meet day.

On Parth's accidental start in the sport:

Parth: I met the district secretary of powerlifting at a physiotherapist's, while I was getting my elbows checked. He added me to a WhatsApp group. That's genuinely how I found out district meets existed.

On what changed between junior and open competition for Parth:

Parth: When I won nationals, I just wanted that done. Then I won, and every time that happens I realize the same thing: I had so much more in me than I was aiming for. Going to World Juniors made that bigger — in India you think you're doing well, and then you see people in lighter classes doing better than you internationally. It's humbling.

On what both of them think the sport needs to fix:

Harish: We really need to focus more on good programming and really staying consistent within the sport, and not feel the urge to take shortcuts. I never considered that I'd have to take anything to hit a number. I was just focused on what I could actually bring, on my own.

On the totals they're each chasing:

Parth: My goal is to total 800. Let's see how much I'm able to reach there near 800, or even if 800 happens.

Harish: I just want to clear that 9 out of 9 and use the peak and taper properly. But if you're asking for a number — 770 to 790.

This is a lightly cleaned excerpt of the full conversation, not the complete transcript. Video will be added once this episode is published to YouTube.