Sanderson won her first major gold medal with a throw of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, the first time that England had won gold in the women's javelin at the games since 1962. A few weeks later, Sanderson took silver at the 1978 European Athletics Championships as runner-up to Fuchs, and at the 1979 European Cup again finished behind Fuchs, with both of them losing out to champion Éva Ráduly-Zörgő.