The success of Don Opeloge and Feagaiga Stowers, who have not been able to compete overseas for more than two years, helps to keep Samoa’s team on course for a record-breaking medal haul at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, due to take place in July and August.

Opeloge and Stowers won the best lifter awards at the Oceania Weightlifting Federation (OWF) Online Cup, a remarkable achievement given that they have been unable to take part in live competitions for so long.

They are grateful for the chance to compete online as they have not been able to travel since their return from the Australian Open in Canberra 25 months ago.

Twenty athletes and four coaches are "cut off from the rest of the country" at an isolated, locked-down training camp, said Jerry Wallwork, President of the Samoa Weightlifting Federation and its top coach.

"We’re not allowing anyone else into the camp," he said.

The team, which includes the Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist Ele Opeloge on the coaching staff, has been in camp since December and will remain there until July, when they leave for Birmingham.

There are six members of the Opeloge family in the elite team, four lifters who are nephews and nieces of Ele, and Hiti, who is the father of three of the athletes.

"It's remarkable - weightlifting is obviously in their genes," said Wallwork.

The six athletes named for the Commonwealth Games are being labelled locally as Samoa’s "Dream Team", as five of them are ranked in medal positions in their weight categories.

"This is probably the strongest team we have ever had," said Wallwork.

No sport has produced more than three medallists for Samoa at any Commonwealth Games, and their best tally across all sports is five at Gold Coast 2018.

The team are hoping and praying that there is no repeat of what happened nine months ago, when the Samoan Government ruled that no home-based athletes in any sport could travel to the Olympic Games in Tokyo because of concerns about bringing the COVID-19 virus into Samoa.

The three weightlifters who had qualified, Opeloge and Nevo Ioane in the men’s 96 kilograms and 67kg, and Stowers in the women’s super-heavyweights, were forced to stay at home while all eight Samoan athletes who had qualified in other sports were clear to compete in Tokyo because they were based overseas.

"That was very tough to take," said Wallwork.

Lockdowns and travel restrictions have intermittently been in place since early 2020 and only two weeks ago Samoa closed its borders and went into strict lockdown after a positive case on the main island of Upolu.

Since March 17 there have been nearly 2,000 positives.

"What the world has had for two years, we’re having now," said Wallwork, who is desperate to avoid another order to stay at home.

"I have spoken to our new Prime Minister (Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa) and she is 100 per cent behind us."

Keeping the athletes motivated during the past two years has been a big challenge, and a few have given up on the sport with no live competitions to aim for.

But the top performers have kept improving, and teams are being prepared for both Birmingham 2022 and the Pacific Mini-Games, due to take place in Northern Mariana in June.

"Without the online events organised by the Oceania Federation it would be very difficult, so I must commend Paul Coffa (OWF general secretary) on that front," said Wallwork.

Coffa said: "This coronavirus pandemic has really caused so much distress to everyone, including our lifters.

"Some have had the luxury of training in their gyms, some needed to train at home in their backyards, and some were completely locked down.

"If it wasn’t for the innovative development of online competition by Bowen Stuart (the Australian who sets up and manages the competitions) many lifters would not have had any opportunity of competing."

Samoa’s "Dream Team," for Birmingham includes Don Opeloge, in the 96kg and his brother Jack, in the 109kg, who are nephews of Ele Opeloge.

The others are Ioane at 67kg, teenager John Tafi at 73kg, Petelo Lautusi at +109kg and Stowers in the women’s super-heavyweights.

Stowers, who totalled 276kg in the Online Cup, was a winner at Gold Coast 2018, where Don Opeloge was second at 85kg.

Stowers is expected to be the strongest challenger to England’s Emily Campbell, who won Olympic silver for Britain in Tokyo.

Laurel Hubbard, the transgender lifter from New Zealand who was injured in Gold Coast four years ago before becoming a focus for global attention in Tokyo, has retired.

The clear favourite in front of Opeloge in the 96kg is Canada’s Boady Santavy, who finished fourth in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a total of 386kg.

Opeloge, 22, is improving and made a respectable 360kg in the online event, eight kilograms below his career best.