An Australian marathon swimmer, Susie Maroney, has walked ashore on a Cuban beach after swimming almost two-hundred kilometres in two days from Mexico.

The event organisers say she has set a new record for open water swimming, although she had to cut short her original route by about forty kilometres when the Cuban coastguard re-directed her to what they considered a safer beach.

The swim was done inside a shark-proof cage, towed by a boat.