David Fitzsimons (23 April 1950 – 7 September 2008) was a former Australian

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

athlete who competed in middle distance events and

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. A member of the Adelaide University Athletics Club, he represented Australia at two

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...

and two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

during his career. Inducted into the South Australian Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. Fitzsimons won eight Australian Championships in Athletics over

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...

and

10000 metres 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

including the 5k/10k double on three occasions.Athletics Australia profile - Dave Fitzsimons
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Engineering

Fitzsimmons worked for 30 years at the

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of the

South Australian Government The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government, SA Government or more formally, His Majesty’s Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of South Australia. It is modelled o ...

. 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 Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

. 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 The IAAF Continental Cup was an international track and field competition organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The event was proposed by IAAF former President Primo Nebiolo and was first held in 1977 as ...

in 1977.

Statistics

Personal BestsAthletics Australia - all time performances

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzsimons, David 1950 births 2008 deaths Australian male middle-distance runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 1978 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for Australia Australian civil engineers Sportsmen from South Australia

Engineering

Athletics career record

Statistics

See also

References