Tuvalu at the Pacific Games similarly rotated on a four-year basis in the intervening years between the main games. A combined Gilbert and Ellice Islands team participated at the 1963, 1966, and 1971 South Pacific Games. An athlete from Tuvalu (then Ellice Islands), namely Nelu Arenga, is at least documented for 1971. Athletes from Tuvalu attended the 2003 South Pacific Games for the first time. Logona Esau was the first athlete from Tuvalu to win a medal at an international competition, when he took bronze at the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Koror, Palau. Tuvalu competed at the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
Gilbert and Ellice Islands which was operating on Ocean Island, and questioned the impartiality of Mahaffy. The seat of government was then moved to Ocean Island (now known as Banaba Island), which had been included in the protectorate in 1900, to take advantage of the improved shipping connections resulting from the Pacific Phosphate Company's activities, and the status of the islands was changed on 12 January 1916 to that of a Crown Colony. The role of the British colonial authorities emphasised the procurement of labour for the Ocean Island phosphate mining and keeping order among the workers. The islands became a Crown colony on