A cheque for WST46,000 (£13,000/$18,000/€15,000) has been presented to help the Pacific nation's efforts thanks to Samoa Sportslotto stepping in.

It follows the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) requesting assistance from Sportlotto programmes.

"It's basically to support the athletes," SASNOC President Fepulea’i Patrick Fepulea’i said to the Samoa Observer.

"At the moment, a few sports have proper recovery facilities, and I think only Samoan Rugby has all the facilities required for their recovery programmes.

"Other sports such as weightlifting, where weightlifters train three times, is what we're trying to do, finding ways to help these athletes.

"Recovery for any sports at the moment is a very important aspect for any athlete, athletes will also need ice baths after any high intensity training to recover and be able to continue their training programmes the next day."

Gold Coast 2018 is due to begin on April 4 in Australia.

Samoa will compete in athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, rugby sevens, shooting, swimming and weightlifting.

The country has won three gold medals in its Commonwealth Games history, which all arrived at Delhi 2010 courtesy of weightlifters.

In 2015, Samoa hosted the Commonwealth Youth Games.