Lisa Darmanin, Nina Curtis, Natasha Bryant in race for Australian Sail GP spot

One is a Tokyo Olympic gold medal favourite. Another a round the world gun and the third a rising star. Now these three women are in a race against each other for a piece of sporting history.

Lisa Darmanin is the Australian SailGP women's selection camp in Sydney.

Lisa Darmanin is a multiple world champion, Olympian and gold medal contender heading into the Tokyo Olympics.

Nina Curtis is an Olympic silver medallist and one of an elite band of women who raced round the world in the last Volvo Ocean race.

Natasha Bryant is a precociously talented rising star who won a world title at 16 and dreams of representing at the Olympics.

The three women at the selection camp sailing a single-handed foiling boat. Pic: Supplied.

The trio - who remarkably all hail from Sydney’s northern beaches - are in a battle to become the first women to race on Australia’s 50-foot foiling catamaran in the SailGP series.

Currently an all-male domain, that’s about to chance as women are offered training and opportunity to join crews on the international circuit under a gender equity initiative to fast track the development of top female sailors.

“Fingers crossed. I really want this,’’ said Newport’s Curtis, who won a silver in the match-racing at the London Olympics and raced in the last Volvo race. “To line up in this would be off the scale.’’

Nina Curtis is a personal trainer and a leading Australian sailor.

Tom Slingsby giving advice to Natasha Bryant.

Curtis, Darmanin, who is on the Sail GP women’s committee and Olympic crewmate of flight controller Jason Waterhouse, and Bryant attended a training camp run by Sail GP skipper and multiple Olympic medallist Tom Slingsby to kickstart the selection process of a female becoming an official teammate this sea on.

Missing were sailors Mara Stransky, who will race Lasers at the Tokyo Olympics, and Hayley Outteridge, due to Covid border restrictions.

Curtis said it would be a dream come true to be one of two women selected to go to Bermuda for the first round of the series in April and have the chance to be the one female named as part of the team.

Natasha Bryant on the harbour on the weekend.

“It was a crash course in foiling but I just loved it,’’ Curtis said.

“It was quite technical, a lot about the centre of gravity so it took me back to my physics which I loved.’’

Curtis said the initiative to involve women was “long overdue’’.

Bryant, 20, who is studying engineering, is also a fan of foiling and keen to be involved in the program.

“They (F50s) are amazing boats to watch and race,’’ said the young gun who won the world 29er youth title in 2016.

“If you look at the sailors they are the best of the best from around the world and I want to be the best sailor I can be. So if it’s racing against the best that's what I want to do.’’

The candidates will known in a week or so if they have made the cut to go to Bermuda.

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Originally published as Lisa Darmanin, Nina Curtis, Natasha Bryant in race for Australian Sail GP spot