Held from January 6 to 21 the Games also included football, volleyball, touch rugby, AirBadminton, netball, and 3x3 basketball.

Beach handball is said to be rapidly growing in popularity in the island nation.

The competition was played over two days featuring 16 matches at the Nikao beach courts in Rarotonga.

"It was a good opportunity for us to recruit and scout players for this discipline," Handball Cook Islands President Makiroa Mitchell-John told Cook Islands News.

"We saw an influx of younger players who don’t play other sports and this has increased our recruitment pool.

"We were also able to train technical officials, which is not an easy job to do - the referee is the most important person in the game - without them there is no game.

"On behalf of Handball Cook Islands, we would like to thank Cook Islands Sports and our National Olympic Committee, who organised this event, and all the teams who participated in these matches - we look forward to seeing you all in our local competition."

Eight mixed teams were initially split into two preliminary groups.

Pool A featured IDK, Outlaws, Manihiki and Red Bulls, while Pool B consisted of Mighty Mermans, Portugal, Purple Pride and Nukz Power.

The top two teams in each pool then played off against each other in the semi-finals, with IDK winning the final against the Mighty Mermans and Outlaws taking bronze.