The nation plans to send more than 500 athletes and officials to the Games in the Papua New Guinea capital to compete in the sports of athletics, basketball, body building, boxing, cricket, football, golf, hockey, karate, lawn bowls, netball, powerlifting, sailing, shooting, softball, squash, surfing, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, rugby sevens, triathlon, touch rugby, va'a, indoor and beach volleyball and weightlifting.

Team Fiji Chef De Mission Cathy Wong, who will also lead the team at the Rio 2016 Olympics, admitted the budget for competing at the 2015 Games is higher than it has been at previous editions because of the size of the squad but said she is doing all she can to keep costs down.

Cathy Wong has said the bigger budget is needed for the 520-strong team travelling to Port Moresby for the Games ©AFP/Getty Images


"Yes fundraising is a big issue," she said.

"You notice the levy for next year is very high.

"The reason it's pitched so high is because for 520 people to spend 14 days in Papua New Guinea at $50 (£30/€40) a day, its comes to almost two and a half million dollars and that's why the levy is high.

"We will be moving people in phases so that we don't spend the entire 14 days there so that cuts our costs down.

"So the final levy will probably be dropped because once we know the final numbers, we can move people up and bring them back and that way we can save costs."

Fiji is the third most successful nation at the Pacific Games to date, having won a cumulative total of 1,240 medals - 386 gold, 461 silver and 393 bronze - since the inaugural Games in 1963, which it hosted in Suva,

The 2015 Pacific Games will take place from July 4 to 18.

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