HAVANA, Sept. 25 -- U.S long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad on Sunday gave up her third attempt to swim across the Florida Strait after bitten by jellyfish.

Nyad, 62, was trying to be the first person to swim across the Florida Stratit without a steel shark cage but she withdrew her attempt at about 1100 local time (1500 GMT), 40 hours after she left Havana and she had covered two thirds of the 166 km total distance.

"The medical staff said I shouldn't spend another two nights in the water and risk myself to be bitten by the jellyfish. The bites could cause a long-term accumulative effect in my body," Nyad said before she got in the escort boat.

"For all of us, isn't life deciding our own finish line? This journey has been about reaching our own shore, no matter which one is, and this dream still continues," she added.

Nyad tried to cross the Florida first in 1978 but withdrew due to the bad weather after 42 hours in the sea. Last month she had a second attempt in which she covered half of the distance in 29 hours.

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