Etimoni Timuani: a national hero in Tuvalu

Sport is in the blood of Etimoni Timuani. Born in Funafuti (Tuvalu) in 1991, the sportsman is a hero that carried a nation’s dream to the highest level when he represented his country in the 2016 Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Despite his amazing Olympic history, Timuani was also a Tuvalu National Football Team player. He represented his country in the 2011 Pacific Games by playing five matches as a central back in the football team.

He returned to the Pacific Games in the upcoming edition held at Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) in 2015. He took part of the Games by running the 100m event but he was disqualified due to a false start

Despite being disqualified in the 2015 Pacific Games, Timuani qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics to run the 100m event. He achieved a time of 11.81 seconds in the preliminary heat and he could not advance to the further round. However these eleven seconds were enough to place him in the history of Tuvalu as he was the only representant from his country in Rio 2016.

He still had time to make history one more time by representing Tuvalu in the 2018 CONIFA World Football Cup, the third edition of the CONIFA World Football Cup, an international football tournament for states, minorities, stateless peoples and regions unaffiliated with FIFA organised by CONIFA.

Tuvalu played three matches in the tournament and scored one goal that was netted by… ETIMONI TIMUANI! He scored for Tuvalu in the 3-1 loss against Matabeleland, a National Team that represents the western part of Zimbabwe. You can see his historic goal in the video below:

If you think it is enough, you are wrong! Timuani also represented Tuvalu National Futsal Team in the 2011 Oceanian Futsal Championship by playing four matches in the tournament. It was the last time that Tuvalu had a National Futsal Team.

Timuani is surely a legend in his country and he must be remembered for decades in his homeland. However he is not very known worldwide and now everyone has the opportunity to know more about his legendary legacy in Tuvalu.