History could be made at the annual National Excavator Operator Competition this weekend as three women compete to be the first female ever crowned.
In its 31-year history a woman has never made it to the finals.
Tanya Claxton is the Hawke's Bay East Coast regional champ and is feeling quietly confident going into the nationals.
There will be 12 competitors battling it out at Feilding's Manfeild Park during the Central Districts Field Days.
This year's tasks are secret, but previous years competitors have had to slam dunk a basketball with an excavator bucket, paint, pour a cup of tea, and scoop an egg up without breaking it.
Photo: Supplied
Unfortunately the egg was a task Claxton couldn't crack.
"Only two of the guys got it, I was close but it sort of rolled off," she said.
"I like those things, they're fun because those aren't things you do on a day-to-day basis, you don't go round picking up eggs or opening beer bottles on a job site."
Claxton trained as a dressmaker, but while looking for summer work outside she found a job as a stop go sign worker.
Now, she's a foreperson and has been in the same industry for 23 years.
For most of her career in construction she's been the only woman on machinery on job sites.
"Back when I started, it was sort of unheard of for females to be on machinery, and until probably the last two years I've been the only female in my depot on machinery.
"My operations manager Lily, put me forward when I was overseas and she thought it would be good to put me out there and said 'you can do it, show them that girls can do anything'."
Photo: Supplied
Alongside Claxton competing to be the first female to take out the competition is Georgia Lyford from Canterbury Westland and Lydia Hill from Nelson Marlborough.
Lyford from Schick Civil Construction in Christchurch is the youngest of the trio and dedicated her qualifying win in Canterbury Westland's regional event to other young women.
"I'm only 23 so it will be cool to go to the finals in Feilding and prove to all the other young girls considering a career in civil construction that we can do it too," she said.
Blenheim-based Hill - who learnt how to operate excavators on her family's farm when she was 14 years old - has been working on large projects in her region like the new Whale Trail from Picton to Kaikōura.
She said it was "mindboggling" that women had never competed at the nationals before.
"I'm super excited - the boys have got to watch out this year."
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