DAVAO City's newly-installed woman candidate master (WCM) Ella Grace Moulic ended her campaign by bagging a total of four gold medals, one silver and one bronze for Team Philippines as the 15th Asean+ Age-Group Chess Championship came to a close Wednesday in Macau, China.
Moulic and teammates Shania Mae Mendoza and Samantha Glo Revita combined for 19 points to capture the girls 16-under blitz team gold over Vietnam bets WFM Thi Dieu Ai Vu, Hoang Anh Nguyen and WCM Thuy Vy Bui (18.0) and Malaysia's Puteri Rifqah Fahada, WCM Li Tang Tan and Wei Xin Rosamund Koo (14.5) who claimed the silver and bronze, respectively.
In the individual event, the 16-year-old Holy Cross of Davao College student settled for bronze as Mendoza shared the gold with Vu. Mendoza and Vu earned identical seven points while Moulic made six points.
Moulic earlier shared the individual rapid gold with Mendoza as both steered the country to another team gold finish along with Revita. The Dabawenya ace also snatched an individual silver in girls 16 standard event as the three Filipinos annexed the team gold for the country in the same category.
Meanwhile, Moulic's father Alfred heaved a sigh of relief after the City Mayor's Office committed to shoulder the domestic plane tickets of his daughter that amounted to P11,112. The tickets were on a 15-day credit at a local agency.
Alfred said he personally went to meet Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte at City Hall last Monday. He opted to raise his concern to executive assistant Christopher "Bong" Go who was just near him while Mayor Duterte was attending to other constituents.
Alfred said, "Nakasabot man si Sir Bong. Iya dayon gipaatiman sa iya staff ang bahin sa Davao-Manila-Davao ticket ni Ella (Sir Bong understood. He had his staff attend my concern regarding Ella's ticket)."
The elder Moulic thanked Mayor Duterte and Go as well as National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) regional director and international arbiter James Infiesto for supporting his daughter.
NCFP, headed by president Prospero "Butch" Pichay, bankrolled Moulic's international traveling expenses as part of her privilege for topping the girls 16 event of the National Age-Group Chess Championship held in Quezon Province.