A two-time winner at the International Cross Country Championships (1955, 1957), Sando represented Great Britain in two consecutive Summer Olympic Games.

Leaving the army in 1951, he began working for the Reed Paper Group in Aylesford, Kent, where he met his future wife Sybil Page.

In 1952 he was called up to represent Great Britain at the Helsinki Olympic Games, in the 10,000 m. It was in this event that he famously lost a shoe early in the race but, continuing on with one bare foot, he still managed to finish in fifth position.

Later in that year he finished third in the 10,000 m in the European Athletics Championships in Berne, Switzerland – which was won by Emil Zátopek.

Running well in the domestic track season of 1956, Sando was selected to represent Great Britain in the 10,000 m in the Olympics of that year, where he finished in tenth position.

He was one of many signatories in a letter to The Times on 17 July 1958 opposing 'the policy of apartheid' in international sport and defending 'the principle of racial equality which is embodied in the Declaration of the Olympic Games'.