In a large church hall near the Samoan parliament, 175-kg judo practitioner Derek Sua is being thrown to the mat by his Japanese coach, a black-belt who is a third his size.
Sua welcomes the training, usually difficult for athletes in Pacific Ocean islands to secure but now offered free by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which coordinates the government's development assistance, to help him qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"It's not easy, because here in the Pacific for us, especially Pacific islanders, we have limited competition," Sua said. "We need to find funding to travel overseas and compete."