[3] Having come close to breaking the two-minute barrier on a number of occasions, Baker at last succeeded at the Crystal Palace, London in July 1986, when she ran 1:59.99.

This made her only the fourth British woman in history to run sub 2 minutes for the 800 metres, after Christina Boxer (1979), Shireen Bailey (1983) and Kirsty McDermott (1985).

Two weeks later at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, she won the bronze medal in the 800 metres final in 2:01.79, behind Kirsty Wade (McDermott) and Diane Edwards.

[citation needed] Baker then suffered two years of injury problems, before returning to form in 1989 and gaining selection for the 1990 Commonwealth Games, held in New Zealand in January.

A month later, at the 1990 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, she ran 2:02.42 to win a bronze medal behind Lyubov Gurina of the Soviet Union and Sabine Zwiener of West Germany.

[citation needed] Throughout her career, Baker placed second or third 16 times at senior national championships, without ever winning.