Team Samoa have slipped to fourth on the Pacific Games medal tally however the team expects to bring in more medals as the competition continues this week.

Samoa has 21 gold medals, 12 silver and nine bronze medals. New Caledonia maintained their top spot with 55 gold medals, 37 silver and 34 bronze. As usual the New Caledonians dominated most of the swimming events where they won most of the events.

Australia is second with 28 gold, 19 silver and eight bronze medals. Tahiti is third now with 22 gold medals, 29 silver and 35 bronze.

It was good news for sailing on Sunday as Vaimo'oi'a Malietoa Ripley has secured the bronze medal individual for the ILCA6, and also a team bronze medal for Samoa with 17-year-old Elizabeth Rasch.

Vaimo'oi'a nailed a first for the medal race, unfortunately it was a little too late. Still, Team Manager Fritz Rasch said the team was thrilled to have secured the Bronze for Pacific Games Sailing 2023.

The men's races commence on Monday.  Samoa is represented by Eroni Leilua and Vitolio Iamafana.

The men’s golf team won the silver medal as well. The team put on a good performance but were edged by New Caledonia.

National gold coach Garry Vui saisd he was happy with the performance from both the men’s and women’s teams.

He said they are looking at winning gold during the singles competition.

It was unfortunate for the women’s basketball team as they were edged by Fiji in the bronze medal playoff.

Coach of the Samoa Women's Basketball Lisa Epa Hogben said this was not the finish they wanted but was proud of the team and the hard work they had put in to make the semi-final of the competition.

The men’s volleyball team returned home with the first ever medal for the men’s team at any of the Pacific Games. They beat New Caledonia to win bronze.

Volleyball Coach Naite Talalelei said they had trained very hard and would have loved to play in the final but he was very happy with the final results. He said they have the capability to do better and they look forward to the next regional competition.

As those athletes who have finished their competition depart, the next lot of athletes have arrived in Honiara. This week athletics start and will go through the whole week. A showdown is expected between Samoa’s Jeremy Dodson and Fijian sprinter Banuve Tabakaucoro.

Boxing also starts this week and Samoa has been tipped to win more gold medals in this sport.

On Saturday, Samoa's rugby sevens team settled for silver after being defeated by Fiji in a 5-19 loss at the gold medal match or finals, settling to bring home silver for Samoa.

Head Coach Afa Aiono and former Manu Samoa and Manu 7s player thanked the nation for the support despite the results which he explained is still a win given that most of the team are young and inexperienced.

"First of all we thank God for we have closed this chapter, as well as Muliaga and the management and skipper and team supporting us from New Zealand, we thank you for your support and prayers for our team," he said.

"This is all we could achieve and for the game today, I take my hat off to the team for coming this far and participating in this level, the international level, I am so proud of them.

"May God bless the brothers especially for this great achievement given that they are young and inexperienced, only two of them aren't but thankfully they have come through and make this possible, it was also due to carelessness but despite that and losing to Fiji, we're grateful for the opportunity and to the boys for coming through."