Top Surrey road walker Estle Viljoen is targeting the Commonwealth Games in India next summer.

The former all-Africa race walking champion is hopeful she can make the English team for the event after reverting to race walking in earnest in the past few months.

Competing for her county in August, she won the women's 3000m walk at the South of England senior inter-counties match at Chelmsford in 14 minutes 27.24 seconds. In September, the 39-year-old Mitcham schoolteacher, who belongs to Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club, won the British Masters 10km road walking championship at Leicester in 54:11 and also finished runner-up in the UK senior championship decided in conjunction with the event.

In her latest competition, representing the South of England in the inter-area match at Doncaster, she won the 5km track walk by more than a minute in 26:50.6. It repeated the win she achieved in the same event at Worcester in 2008 where her time of 25:58.9 put her in the top 10 in the world veterans rankings for 2008.

Much earlier in the year she won two titles at the European Veterans Championships in Denmark in May. She took the 10km event in 55:43 and the 20km gold medal in 1:59:12.

Viljoen's ability to compete in walking events has been hampered by a series of injury problems. However, after her latest successes, she said: "It is a great feeling to realise that I am gaining confidence again after a long period of constant injuries. I can race again with a competitive spirit."

Viljoen, who teaches at Haslemere Primary school, and previously represented her native South Africa in the All Africa Games, added: "I am so thankful to the Nuffield gym in Wimbledon who have been supporting me in my training. Competing in the 2010 Commonwealth Games has been a dream for me but I would like to make the dream come true or at least give it my best shot."

Viljoen won the 20km walk at the All-Africa Games in Abuja in 2003 in 1:44:29. That year, she also finished third in the 20km walk in the Waterford Crystal Dublin International Grand Prix meeting in the Irish capital, again representing South Africa, in a faster time of 1:42:14, which is her lifetime best for the distance. In 2004, she finished runner-up in the South African championships in Durban in 1:45:12.

Her next walking competition is likely to be in the Belgrave open seven miles event in Wimbledon on November 28. She won the women’s event last year in just outside the hour.