Florida Straits swim bid fails

DIANA NYAD, the 61-year-old endurance swimmer, has ended an attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida about halfway into the journey.

Ocean swells, shoulder pain and asthma dogged her before she was finally brought aboard a boat, vomiting. “I am not sad. It was absolutely the right call,” she said.

Nyad, who had said she hoped to bring Cuba and the US closer together through the swim, began her second attempt late on Sunday to make the difficult crossing through the treacherous Florida Straits.

Had she succeeded, she would have been the first person to have crossed without a shark cage.

Nyad had already made a first attempt in 1978, which she was forced to abandon by poor weather.

The US has not had diplomatic relations with Cuba since 1961 when it slapped a trade embargo on the communist-ruled island.