US swimmer abandons 103-mile attempt from Cuba to Florida

Diana Nyad, 61, begins vomiting 29 hours in, forcing her to end bid to become first to swim stretch without shark cage American swimmer Diana Nyad has been forced to end her bid to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage mid-trip, CNN reported. The news channel, which had a producer on one of the boats accompanying the 61-year-old swimmer, said she was vomiting when she was brought aboard a boat at 12:45am local time. Nyad was about 29 hours into a swim that had been expected to last about 60 hours, with Key West, Florida, her intended destination. “I am not sad. It was absolutely the right call,” CNN quoted her as saying. Nyad was shielded by an electrical field to ward off sharks in her bid to set a world record by completing the 103-mile (166km) crossing from Cuba without a shark cage . Matt Sloane, the CNN producer following the attempt, had tweeted on Monday that she was experiencing some pain in her shoulder and “a little touch of asthma” but was otherwise moving strongly more than 18 hours into the swim. Nyad had plunged into the warm sea at the Marina Hemingway on the western outskirts of Havana at 7:45pm local time on Sunday, cheered on by well-wishers. Her escort vessels included specially equipped kayaks transmitting an electronic signal that is annoying to sharks in the waters of the Florida Straits. Nyad, who was raised in south Florida and turns 62 later this month, had tried the crossing from Cuba at the age of 28 in 1978, but failed owing to winds and heavy waves. The same swim was completed successfully in 1997 by Susan Maroney, an Australian who was 22 at the time. But she used a shark cage. “I don’t want to have that asterisk at the end of my name at the end of this. I want this to be ‘that was the first swim ever done without a shark cage, from Cuba to Florida,’ just point blank,” Nyad told MSNBC’s Today Show. World records Swimming Swimming Fitness Florida United States Cuba guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 9, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.