Fastest off the blocks

Sensational: Katie Ledecky of the United States competes during the women’s 400m freestyle heat. Below: Adam Peaty. — AP/Reuters

KATIE Ledecky set up another Olympic showdown with Australia’s champion Ariarne Titmus for the 400m freestyle title, the American great qualifying fastest for the final as the Paris swimming launched in a febrile atmosphere yesterday.

Three years after Titmus took Ledecky’s Olympic crown in a Tokyo thriller, the pair lined up next to each other on the blocks and were again neck-and-neck at a rocking La Defense Arena before Ledecky pulled away in the final lap.