A delegation from The Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC), led by first vice-president Beatrice Allen, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, met with IHF President Hassan Moustafa at the Games.

According to GHA secretary general Haruna Cham, who was present at the meeting, around $40,000 (£30,000/€36,000) of the grant will be used to construct an outdoor handball court in the country.

The Handball for Schools project is also set to benefit, while other funds will be directed towards the training of coaches, referees and administration support staff, the provision of 300 balls and training and equipment for beach handball.

Officials from the GNOC also held meetings with organisers of the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games and with the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) during Rio 2016.

Allen discussed the Tokyo 2020 Games with members of the JOC.

The aim of the meeting was to get support for Gambian athletes to take part in sports such as taekwondo, judo, karate and athletics.

It was claimed that the meeting on the Islamic Solidarity Games was “fruitful” as it was agreed that the Organising Committee would explore ways of supporting the attendance of Gambian athletes at the event in Azerbaijan's capital.

The African nation plan to send a team of nine to the event, which is scheduled to take place from May 12 to 22.

The fourth edition of the Games is expected to attract up to 5,000 athletes from Islamic states around the world.

They will be representing their nations in 20 different sports, including 24 disciplines, across 16 venues in Baku.

The Gambia participated in judo, swimming and athletics at Rio 2016 last month.

They did not manage to win a medal, but the experience has been described as "positive" as they were able to network with event organisers to enhance the future of sport in the country.