Jessica Ennis looked in good shape at the first day of the UK Indoor Championships in Sheffield with solid performances in the high jump and shot put.

The European heptathlon champion, who is preparing to retain her world indoor title in Istanbul next month, produced a great competitive effort to start her weekend with her fourth UK indoor high jump title.

Worthing’s Emma Perkins provided stern resistance as the 26-year-old set PBs at 1.85m and 1.87m before a first-time clearance at a third PB height of 1.89m. Last year’s European Team Championships representative appeared on the cusp of a shock victory as Ennis needed three attempts to clear 1.89m but after responding to this crisis, the home-town athlete cleared 1.91m at her first attempt to defend her title.

Ennis’ 1.91m clearance also equals her best-ever season’s opener.

In the shot put, Ennis tallied up a pair of 14m-puts with her best effort of 14.09m coming in the second round. Even though her series tailed off somewhat, it marked a season’s best for Ennis who opened her year with a 13.95m put at the Northern Championships last month.

Eden Francis won the title with a stadium record of 16.72m while Commonwealth heptathlon champion Louise Hazel set a PB of 12.30m.

Ennis’ high jump and shot put performances were both in excess of the marks she recorded at last year’s UK Indoor Championships of 1.88m and 13.86m.

Jonathan Mellor won a keenly-contested 3000m ahead of Stephen Davies in a race where the first six athletes set PBs. Mellor produced a final lap of 29 seconds to win in 7:58.36 to Davies’ 7:58.78. Mark Mitchell also ducked under the eight-minute barrier with 7:59.00.

Steeplechaser Zak Seddon set a UK indoor age-17 best of 8:12.53 to finish tenth.

Most of Britain’s leading sprinters are focusing on the 60m this weekend but they would have struggled to have kept pace with Margaret Adeoye, who maintained her unbeaten record in the 200m. The Linford Christie-coached athlete won the final in a PB of 23.36 – which is only six-hundredths slower than her outdoor PB – to move to equal No.9 on the UK indoor all-time rankings.

In the men’s one-lap event, Bournemouth’s Sven Knipphals won in 21.36 although reigning champion Danny Talbot was forced to withdraw from the final because of a hamstring tweak.

Shana Cox was the fastest qualifier for the 400m final with 52.89 ahead of Nicola Sanders, who improved to 53.71 after struggling to qualify from the heats with 55.22. Nadine Okyere won the other semi-final in 53.76 from Laura Langowski and Kirsten McAslan, who also improved their PBs to 53.77 and 53.82 respectively – the latter being the second-fastest time ever by a British junior.

Rob Tobin finished ahead of European silver medallist Michael Bingham in the first 400m semi-final while multiple UK champion Richard Buck won the second semi from Nigel Levine.

Marilyn Okoro was the fastest qualifier from the 800m heats although the anticipated head-to-head with Jenny Meadows won’t materialise as the European bronze medallist pulled out citing a niggle.

Joe Thomas was a comfortable qualifier from the 800m heats in 1:51.69 along with Guy Learmonth, who won the first heat in 1:50.43. Anthony Whiteman set a European M40 indoor 800m record of 1:51.97 but will not contest Sunday’s final as is going to a training camp in Malta.

World junior bronze medallist Andrew Sutcliffe prevailed in the pole-vault ahead of Steve Lewis, who was aiming for his sixth national indoor title. Even though Lewis holds the best vault by a British athlete this winter at 5.62m, Sutcliffe finished ahead of the Commonwealth silver medallist at the Aviva Glasgow International last month and this form proved telling as the competition unfolded.

Sutcliffe, whose pre-2012 PB stood at 5.36m, was the only athlete clear at 5.55m and this sufficed for his first UK senior title. Lewis took the runner-up spot on countback at 5.45m ahead of Max Eaves and Luke Cutts.

Veteran Yamile Aldama was the convincing winner of the triple jump as the world fifth placer from Daegu set a season’s best of 14.09m in the third round. For the first time in domestic indoor competition, the three medallists all surpassed the 13.50m-barrier as
Nadia Williams and Yasmine Regis finished with season’s bests of 13.53m and 13.50m respectively.

Newham & Essex Beagle Nick Thomas, who represented Jamaica at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, was the only athlete to surpass 16m in the men’s equivalent. Thomas took the lead in the second round with 16.03m before extending his advantage to 16.18m in the final round.

Birchfield Harrier Scott Rider won the shot put with a season’s best of 18.28m to finish more than one metre clear of his nearest rival.

» See Athletics Weekly on Thursday for 12 pages of coverage from the championships, with in-depth reports, photographs and results