The eruption of the underwater Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai caused widespread damage and triggered huge tsunamis which were felt as far away as Peru.

In the aftermath, Tonga was cut off from the outside world for days as vital communication lines were severed.

The amount of ash hampered the aid effort and swamped the airport runway, with the Government declaring the situation an "unprecedented disaster".

Scientists later ruled that the blast was the the largest explosion ever recorded in the atmosphere by modern instrumentation, surpassing even nuclear bomb tests.

Tonga faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the country but, remarkably, sport has soldiered on and a team of 28 athletes are due to compete at the Commonwealth Games under Chef de Mission Suliana Afu.

The men's rugby sevens team makes up the bulk of the squad, with 13 players, while there will be four wrestlers, four swimmers, three boxers, two weightlifters and two in athletics.

Afu is the vice-president of the Tonga Sports Association and National Olympic Committee.

She was appointed way back in September 2020 so "she could start attending to  some of the logistics and planning requirements".

Tonga first competed at the Commonwealth Games in 1974 in Christchurch and has not missed an edition since then.

The country has won three bronze medals in that time, which have all come in the boxing ring.

Super heavyweight Paea Wolfgramm was the first to stand on the podium in Victoria in 1994, and the country then enjoyed an excellent Games at Delhi 2010, where super heavyweight Junior Fa and lightweight Lomalito Moala both grabbed a medal.

At the Olympics, Wolfgramm is Tonga's only medallist after he lost the Atlanta 1996 super heavyweight final to a certain Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian who went on to become one of the most famous names in boxing.

In recent times, Tonga has become known for taekwondo athlete Pita Taufatofua, whose shirtless appearances as the country's flagbearer at the Olympics gained him much social media traction.

Taufatofua also competed in cross-country skiing at the Pyeonchang 2018 Winter Olympics but it will be left to someone else to carry the flag in Birmingham with taekwondo not on the programme.

COVID-19 notably impacted Tongan sport, with six members of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team forced to wait until October to travel home after becoming stranded in New Zealand.

As the Games in Japan ended on August 8, this was a lengthy wait.

Coronavirus also impacted the visit of the Queen's Baton Relay in February, when the country was in a period of lockdown.

It meant the Tonga Commonwealth Games Association moved away from hosting "traditional" Relay activities, although some exemptions were allowed so the baton could be taken to key areas of interest.

This included Tongan sprinter Siueni Filimone and athlete Ronald Fotofili holding the baton at the entrance of Tupou College in Toloa, on the island of Tongatapu.

The baton was also taken to Captain Cook’s Landing Place by a member of the youth hockey team.  

A plaque, commemorated by Queen Elizabeth II in 1970, marks the location where Cook is said to have come ashore in 1777.