In what form is Efimov?
For several years Yulia Efimova has been the main star of women's swimming in Russia and the main hope of the fans.
The upcoming Tokyo Olympics may become the fourth for her in her career - none of the domestic swimmers has yet achieved this.
At the same time, she is clearly not going to "serve out the number", but will try to win the long-awaited victory, and the Russian championship in Kazan should confirm this.
So far, Efimova's form is a big mystery.
In an interview with RIA Novosti, the athlete, who turned 29 on April 3, said that before being selected for the national team, she took part in only one frivolous competition, which had never happened in her career.
But she resumed training with Dave Salo, thanks to whom she broke into the elite of world swimming.
Efimova had a good start at the national championship.
She won gold in the 50m breaststroke in 30.59 seconds.
But this discipline is not Olympic, and it will be necessary to show the best seconds at 100 and 200 meters.
Efimova's main rival will be the rising star Evgeny Chikunov.
At the October national championship, the 16-year-old athlete took all the gold in the women's breaststroke, while showing such results that it would be possible to fight for Olympic medals.
This means that Efimova has no room for error, since only two athletes can qualify for each discipline, who swim better than the Olympic standard.
Will the Briton make it to the Russian national team?
The women's breaststroke in Russia boasts fantastic competition, which will also be strengthened by former British swimmer Tatyana Belonogoff.
Last year, she decided to change her sports citizenship and move to Russia, where she trains under the guidance of the titled coach Irina Vyatchanina.
The main achievement of the 19-year-old athlete is still the victory at the European Junior Championships in 2018 in the 50-meter.
The national championship in Kazan will become the debut for Belonogoff in his career and can immediately give a ticket to the Olympics (she took silver at fifty kopecks, losing 0.19 seconds to Efimova).
True, in the 100-meter heats she is seeded with the fourth time, and in the 200-meter - with the eighth, so a naturalized swimmer will have to try very hard to be in her new national team.
What will the world champions show?
Special attention should be paid to the results of the reigning world champions - Evgeny Rylov and Anton Chupkov.
Both are among the main contenders for Olympic gold, unless the coronavirus pandemic has had an extremely negative impact on their preparation and mood.
Chupkov's crown discipline is the 200-meter breaststroke, where he also holds the world record.
But over the past year, the Japanese Soma Sato and the Dutchman Arno Cumminga have come close to achieving it.
Both of them, like the Russian, managed to swim out of 2: 07.00, which is a very good indicator.
To remain the favorite, Chupkov must at least repeat their move.
It will also be interesting to know what the 24-year-old Muscovite will show at a distance of 100 meters.
Briton Adam Petey is the undisputed favorite in it, but in recent months he did not swim out of 58 seconds, which gives hope for gold to other swimmers, including Chupkov.
True, so far he does not use it - in the semifinals, which took place on the first day of the national championship, he only shared the third place, losing to Kirill Prigoda and Alexander Palatov.
Rylov will also try to qualify at distances of 100 and 200 meters on the back, but his main rivals are not his compatriots, but the Chinese Xu Jiayu.
He is leading both disciplines this season with 52.35 and 1: 55.26 times.
If Rylov shows commensurate results in Kazan, then he will probably be ready to fight the Chinese at the Olympics.
Will Borodin surprise you again?
The real star of the October Russian Championship was 17-year-old Ilya Borodin.
At such a young age, he updated Russia's records in the 200 and 400 meters complex swimming, which have long been considered the most problematic in the country.
His long-distance result - 4: 11.50 - could have been called phenomenal, since he could have brought Borodin bronze at the last World Championship.
Whether it was the emergence of a new world sailing star or just a short-term success, the country's current championship should show.
And so far, Borodin confirms that the first option is correct.
On the starting day of the competition, he again won the 400 meters, dropping another 0.33 seconds from his record and updating the highest achievement for juniors.
Thus, he became the first swimmer to qualify for the Russian Olympic team, along with runner-up Maxim Stupin.
On April 7, Borodin will start at a distance of 200 meters.
His personal record of 1: 58.00 does not yet allow him to count on Olympic medals, but if the achievement can be improved, then the chances of the young athlete will definitely increase.
Has Kolesnikov matured?
About 20-year-old Kliment Kolesnikov, we can safely say that he has been trying for too long to justify the status of the main hope of Russian sailing.
It has been almost three years since he won three golds in the European Championships, including two personal, and set a world record in the 50m backstroke.
But almost all of Kolesnikov's subsequent successes were associated either with short water swimming, or with the same 50-meter, in which a medal at the Olympics cannot be won.
In Kazan, Kolesnikov will try to prove that good Olympic prospects can still be associated with him.
He has one very compelling argument - in November at the International Swimming League competitions, he twice swam faster than the world record at 100 meters.
Even if these were also starts in a 25-meter pool, none of the other participants could keep up with Kolesnikov.
After such a breakthrough, he has every chance not only to bypass his direct competitors Grigory Tarasevich and Nikolai Zuev, but even to impose a fight on Yevgeny Rylov.
And judging by the first results of the Russian championship in the 50-meter swim, Kolesnikov is ready for this challenge - he confidently won with a score of 24.08 seconds, with which he would have easily won gold at the 2019 World Cup.
How many rabbits will emerge in 48 seconds?
In the men's 100-meter freestyle, the burden of responsibility on the athletes is not so heavy.
Those who did not make it into the top two still have a chance to get to the Olympics thanks to the relay.
But to fight for medals in it, it is imperative that the team has as many swimmers as possible capable of swimming at a distance of 48 seconds.
Several athletes are quite capable of aiming at such a result.
The first on this list is Vladimir Morozov, who has been holding the unofficial title of the main sprinter rabbit in the country for many years.
It also includes last year's sensational Russian champion Andrei Minakov, who swam 100 meters in 47.57 seconds in October, one hundredth faster than the junior world record.
Finally, it can be the current bronze medalist of the World Championship Vladislav Grinev.
Mikhail Vekovishchev and Alexander Shchegolev, who have already managed to exchange the 49-second line in their careers and are ready to move on, can become candidates for this club.
Who, besides Efimova, will qualify for the fourth Olympics?
In addition to Efimova, three more athletes will try to get to their fourth Olympics.
For 30-year-old Anastasia Fesikova, this can be a real feat.
Last fall, she had to deal with a shoulder injury and skip the main competitions, after which at the Russian Short Course Fesikova twice found herself one step away from medals.
In women's backstroke, there are such strong athletes as Daria Vaskina, Daria Ustinova, Maria Kameneva and Anastasia Avdeeva, who may well leave Fesikova outside the Olympic team.
But at the same time, in the 50-meter swim, she won gold (28.00 seconds), and this can be a good help for her in other forms.
For Danila Izotov and Nikita Lobintsev, once irreplaceable participants in the 4x200m freestyle relay, it will be even more difficult to qualify.
With their latest results, it will be hard to even count on getting into the finals of individual heats, and without this it is impossible to hope at least to return to the relay team.