Jellyfish ruin Cuba - US swim

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August 22, 2012

Diana Nyad

A 62-year-old US woman, Diana Nyad, has been forced to stop her attempt to become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida, US, without a shark cage.

On Tuesday, August 21, a day before her birthday, the woman had to halt her swim 84 kilometers away from the intended destination in the US.

Nyad and her team say such a decision was taken because the winds were too strong and she had been stung by jellyfish.

This was her fourth attempt in 35 years, reports ABC News.

But the woman is determined to keep trying.

“When can I get back in? I want full transparency that I was out. But I have plenty left in me and I want to go on,” she says.

It should be added though that this time Nyad swam for longer than in her previous tries – she had been in the water for more than 41 hours.

As reported, the swimmer left the Cuban capital, Havana, on Saturday, August 18, afternoon and was aiming to reach Florida on Tuesday, BBC reported.

She had added jellyfish experts and detectors to her support team – alongside divers, whose task is to protect the swimmer from sharks.

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