MEXICO: AUSTRALIAN DISTANCE SWIMMER SUSIE MARONEY ATTEMPTS TO SWIM FROM MEXICO TO CUBA

Record ID: 211022

  • Title: MEXICO: AUSTRALIAN DISTANCE SWIMMER SUSIE MARONEY ATTEMPTS TO SWIM FROM MEXICO TO CUBA
  • Date: 30th May 1998
  • Summary: ISLA MUJERES, MEXICO (MAY 30, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SWIMMER SUSIE MARONEY WHO WAS ATTEMPTING TO SWIM FROM MEXICO TO CUBA 2. BOAT "PROSPECTOR" THAT WILL ACCOMPANY MARONEY 3. VARIOUS OF MARONEY SWIMMING 4. MARONEY ENTERING PROTECTIVE CAGE 5. MARONEY SWIMMING INSIDE CAGE 6. BOAT FROM REAR Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th June 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISLA MUJERES, MEXICO
  • City:
  • Country: AT SEA Mexico LATIN AMERICA
  • Reuters ID: LVAFXISIOSWUFOA22SI8OKQT9JI
  • Story Text: An Australian swimmer is within sight of Cuba's westernmost tip as she attempts to set a world record by swimming from Mexico to Cuba - partly through shark invested waters.

    Australian marathon swimmer Susie Maroney has reached one of the most perilous parts of her journey because she will have to swim the last 1500 metres without her shark cage and in darkness.

    Maroney, tired but determined to reach land, headed toward a beach on Cuba's western tip early on Monday (June 1) after deciding to shorten the final part of a record-breaking swim from Mexico to Cuba.

    Connie Pignatiello, media coordinator for the event, said Maroney was now making for Las Tumbas beach on Cuba's Guanahacabibes Peninsula and was expected to reach the shore at around 5 am local time (0900 GMT).

    This was a few miles further on from the Cabo de San Antonio lighthouse on Cuba's westernmost tip, where the swimmer had earlier decided to try to come ashore, cutting short her originally planned 145-mile (233 km) route by some 25 miles.

    But the Cuban coast guard refused to let her attempt a landfall at the lighthouse and recommended instead that she continue to Las Tumbas beach."I think it's safer for her on the beach," Pignatiello said.

    Earlier, her husband Joe Pignatiello, the event coordinator, said the 23-year-old Australian swimmer had decided to head for shore on the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, instead of continuing 25 miles or so down the coast to Maria La Gorda, a picturesque diving resort that was the originally planned landfall.

    "She's ready for this to be over.She says she's had enough fun," Joe Pignatiello said, speaking by satellite telephone from the command vessel accompanying Maroney.

    He indicated that the grueling ordeal of more than 30 hours so far had taken its toll on Maroney, who was swimming inside a specially built sharkproof cage and was wearing a Lycra skinsuit to protect herself from jellyfish stings.

    Pignatiello added that when she eventually reached the shore it was estimated that she would have covered some 120 miles of her originally planned 145-mile (233 km) swim between Isla Mujeres, Mexico, from where she set off on Saturday, and Maria La Gorda, Cuba.

    "We are going to get her in as close as we can," he said.

    But because of shallow water and reefs near the coast, she would have to swim in the last 1,500 yards (metres) without her sharkproof cage and in near darkness."We're very concerned about sharks," Pignatiello said.

    He added her support crew were worried about lighting her way in to the shore with floodlights on the final part of the swim because this could attract sharks and other marine life.

    Earlier, he had reported that repairs had needed to be made to a hole torn in the mesh of the sharkproof cage.The hole was blocked off with a net to keep the jellyfish out.

    Maroney's mother and two brothers are on board the shrimper Prospector, which is towing the swimmer's shark cage.

    Maroney, 23, set a record for marathon ocean swimming last year when she crossed the dangerous 108 mile (173 km) strait between Cuba and Florida.She also holds the women's record for a double crossing of the English Channel.
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