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Dominican swimmer completes his 5 continents swim
posted on: Sep 17 2010 11:43 by Royston. Viewed 483 times.
The Dominican Ultradistance open water swimmer, Marcos Diaz, completed his epic adventure in New York on Wednesday. He has been swimming across open water between five continents to raise global awareness of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, the series of promises made by world leaders to eradicate poverty by 2015. 
His journey ended by swimming from the statue of Liberty to the UN Headquarters in Gantry Plaza Park. Diaz was greeted by dozens of people waving the Dominican flag , as well as US officials.
He was received by the Secretary General UN Ban Ki -moon, to whom Diaz delivered messages of support for the Millennium Development Goals which he had collected from people he met during his journey.
"I'm thrilled," said Diaz to the BBC by telephone after completion of the ceremony. "This journey was very special, joining the continents shows that great things are possible. It shows that we are not separate and that we are all united on this issue."
The 35 year old swimmer said that no city could be better than New York to complete his journey and talk with UN Secretary General.
The journey started in May and took him from Papua New Guinea to Indonesia, from Jordan to Egypt, from Morocco to Spain, from Russia to Alaska and he chose New York as the last leg to deliver the request to UN.
The Dominican swimmer's marathon effort ended days before the Heads of State in the UN from 22nd to 23rd September to review progress in the eradication of poverty.
This month marks 10 years since September 2000, when 189 governments gathered in New York to sign the Declaration Goals, pledging to work together to eradicate extreme poverty worldwide by 2015.
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