TACLOBAN CITY?THE 2009 Palarong Pambansa unfolds today at the Leyte Sports Development Center here with a new batch of promising athletes trying to crowd the old stars on the national stage.

Competition in both high school and elementary divisions gets going in 19 venues but all hostilities will stop tomorrow to give way for the formal opening rites with President Macapagal-Arroyo as guest of honor.

Powerhouse National Capital Region, which ruled both divisions last year in Puerto Princesa City, and Western Visayas are expected to dominate the action again in the weeklong sportsfest featuring 8,500 athletes, coaches and delegation officials from 17 regions.

The overall race is decided by the most number of points achieved from a points system governing each sport.

There will be 29 sports in high school and 25 in the elementary division.

Eleven gold medals?four in the secondary and two in the elementary division apart from the five at stake for differently abled athletes?will be up for grabs today in centerpiece athletics.

Gold medals will be disputed in the boys? secondary long jump, triple jump and javelin and girls? secondary javelin, and girls? elementary shot put and boys? elementary triple jump.

NCR?s track and field team will miss Isidro del Prado Jr., son of two-time Olympian Isidro, who is now in college along with second-generation national tracksters Justin Tabunda and Renato Unso.

With the trio combining for eight golds, NCR grabbed the team championship title in the boys? athletics team.

Dorothy Hong and other multiple-gold winners last year, however, will return to action in the pool today to complement the anticipated dominance of the Big City bets in basketball, gymnastics and taekwondo.

A perennial gold-medal contender in softball, baseball and football, Western Visayas could steal the limelight from NCR in athletics with an almost intact lineup in the secondary division.