Samoa has clawed its way into the top three of the total medal tally in the 2023 XVII Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands after one week of competition.

The latest medal tally that was put up at around 6 pm (Solomon Islands local time) showed Australia had leap-frogged New Caledonia to top the table with 23 gold, 13 silver and 6 bronze for a total of 42 medals. 

The French territory, which had now dropped to second in the first week of competition in the two-week event, had 22 gold, 18 silver and 21 bronze for a total medal haul of 61. 

In third place was Samoa with 12 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals for a total of 20 medals after the first week of competition.

Another French territory, Tahiti was running fourth with 7 gold, 16 silver and 21 bronze for a total of 44 medals while the host Solomon Islands were fifth on the medal tally with 7 gold, 9 silver and 7 bronze with 23 medals in total.

On Wednesday, the Samoan men’s rugby league team defeated Fiji in the finals by 8-0 to win a gold medal. Also, swimmer Hector Langkilde won a silver and a bronze in the pool while Olivia Borg bagged another gold for Samoa in swimming in the 50m freestyle.

Samoa continued to make waves in the pool with Kokoro Frost and his relay team claiming silver at the Pacific Games in the men's 4x100 freestyle.

Another weightlifter, Avatu Opeloge also won three silver medals in the women’s 76kg category.

The men’s basketball team have qualified for the semi-finals and play Guam on Friday while Fiji will take on New Caledonia in the other semi-final.

Samoan sprinter Jeremy Dodson has also joined the camp and is getting ready for the athletics competition next week.

Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) President Tuala Mathew Vaai in his update said he was happy with the way the teams were performing so far.

“It is amazing how Samoa’s athletes have prepared and it shows in the medal tally. As administrators, we are very proud of the outcome so far and we look forward to more medals,” he said in his update on the SASNOC Facebook page.

“The results are the outcome of months of hard work, commitment and support from families. The athletes are focused and are looked after well. We look forward to the coming days.”

The competition continues on Friday with table tennis, basketball, sailing, football, swimming and weightlifting. The rest of the competition will begin next week and includes netball, rugby sevens and athletics.