Samoa remains hopeful of boosting their Olympic weightlifting roster.
Five countries qualified for the Rio Games at the Oceania Weighlifting Championships, which wrapped up in Suva at the weekend.
Samoa's haul of four gold, eight silver and four bronze medals helped them finish as the top-ranked men's team, despite Papua New Guinea topping the gold medal count with five.
Samoa qualified two lifters for Rio at the Oceania Weightlifting Championships. Photo: Facebook / 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championship
New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Kiribati also qualified a male lifter for Rio.
In the women's competition, Australia led the way with six gold, six silver and five bronze medals and were joined by New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa in earning a spot in Brazil.
The President of the Samoa Weightlifting Federation, Jerry Wallwork, said there's a chance they could still add to their team.
"At the moment it's one male/one woman. We're still looking at maybe one or two others - not confirmed yet but probably in the next two or three weeks we will have a final (decision). We're waiting on our National Olympic Committee - apparently they've done some extra requests directly to the International Olympic Committee. I can't confirm it - it's really up to them. If it comes through it comes through, if it doesn't it doesn't then we will stick with the two that we have now."
Kiribati's David Katoatau during the 2016 Oceania Championships. Photo: Facebook / 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championship
Jerry Wallwork said there was a very high standard of competition at the Oceania Championships and he was encouraged by the performance of his lifters.
"Everyone had to produce the results and be careful with bombouts. I was very pleased with the performance of the team. I think especially with our younger lifters there were some divisions where I think we should have taken the gold but then that's how the sport goes - take the good and the bad. Certainly there's some areas we need to work on (so) come the next tournaments, come the Olympic Games, come the Commonwealth Games that we will be ready."
Jerry Wallwork said, based on current rankings, Samoa's two confirmed berths will be filled by Mary Opeloge, who won the women's 75kg class, and Vaipava Nevo Ioane, who finished second in the men's 62kg division.
