On the 29th of March 2024, Gilbert Kirkwood, MSC's Masters and Bronze Squad coach, will turn 80. Gilbert has been a coach in Scotland since the early 1980s and became Head Coach at Midlothian SC in 1986. He moved on to coach with Carnegie as Assistant Coach in the 1990s before becoming head coach there and also coaching in West Lothian. He had some of his most successful periods as a coach while he was at Carnegie, where he coached a number of national champions and internationalists. He was also the lead coach for the Lothian Region squad in the days when that existed. He returned back to Midlothian Swimming Club 8 years ago and has been there ever since. He played a huge part in the establishment of our Masters' Squad and now regularly attends meets with his squad. As well as this, he travels abroad with Midlothian to Warm Weather Training each year and has also established a bi- annual training weekend in Dunoon for our younger swimmers.
