About 244 gold medals are up for grabs in the National Private Schools and Athletics Association Games that fires off Monday at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

Athletics will have the most number of gold medals to be disputed in the national school-based competitions with 75, while 52 golds are at stake in the swimming hostilities, which was dominated by the Western Visayas tankers last year.

Region VI, comprised of athletes from Negros, Iloilo, Antique, Aklan and Capiz, brought home the overall title last year with a 77-47-45 medal haul, edging Southern Mindanao or Region XI (69-58-49).

Racquet games badminton, lawn tennis and table tennis offers 16 gold medals each with Region VI aiming to retain its team championships in the women's play of badminton and table tennis.

The Western Visayas women's volleyball team, bannered by University of St. La Salle and University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, hopes to rule their division for six gold medals as men's volleyball also stakes six golds.

Basketball, wherein the men's squad of Region VI will be represented by UNO-R and West Negros College, will have 10 golds.

The teakwondo and chess competitions also offer 10 gold medals each as the WNC woodpushers are vying to keep the men's chess title of Western Visayas won last year.

Student-athletes from UNO-R and La Salle will defend the sepak takraw crown of Region VI that is worth nine gold medals. The baseball and softball competitions, which will not be competed in by Western Visayas, will also have nine golds each.

The 15-region meet has adopted a weighted gold medal tally, wherein the count of gold medals in the team and relay disciplines will be equivalent to the number of players at a time, Ericsson Rios, co-chairman of the WV PRISAA screening and eligibility committee, said.

Region VI is already minus 18 golds because it does not have squads in softball and baseball so it needs to dominate the relay and team events to have a chance in keeping its overall championship, Rios, who also serves as the UNO-R sports moderator, added.

The 196 athletes, with 78 coming from Negros, donning the colors of Western Visayas will leave for Pangasinan at 12:45 p.m. today. A meeting between coaches, team managers and team representatives in the national meet dubbed "Friendship, Unity and Solidarity Towards National Transformation" will be held tomorrow.

Aside from UNO-R, West Negros and USLS players, Negros will also send Riverside College and Visayan Maritime Academy athletes to see action in badminton and taekwondo. *CIT

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