David Fitzsimons


David Fitzsimons was a former Australian Olympic athlete who competed in middle distance events and civil engineer.
A member of the Adelaide University Athletics Club, he represented Australia at two Olympic Games and two Commonwealth Games during his career. Inducted into the South Australian Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. Fitzsimons won eight Australian Championships in Athletics over 5000 metres and 10000 metres including the 5k/10k double on three occasions.

Engineering

Fitzsimmons worked for 30 years at the Transport Department of the South Australian Government. He was the supervising engineer of a road bridge which replaced a level crossing on Park Terrace on what became the city ring route of Adelaide. The Park Terrace bridge over the Gawler railway line and interstate freight line is 120 metres long and was constructed in 1990. It was named after Fitzsimons in 2017.

Athletics career record

During his athletics career, Fitzsimons represented Australia at two Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games and two World Cups.
His greatest international achievement was placing third over 5000 metres at the inaugural IAAF World Cup in 1977.

Statistics

Personal Bests
EventPerformancePlaceDate
1500m3-39.92Christchurch, New Zealand31 January 1974
2000m5-06.6Edmonton, Canada2 August 1978
3000m7-48.74Gothenburg, Sweden16 July 1978
2 miles8-28.0Melbourne, Australia11 January 1979
5000m13–17.42Düsseldorf, Germany4 September 1977
10000m28–04.64London, Great Britain9 September 1977