New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Pistol shooter Michaelangelo Giustiniano, Australia's oldest athlete at the Commonwealth Games, committed a rare mistake at the Karni Singh Shooting Range that cost him a medal in 25 metre centre fire pistol event Sunday.

After their final round, where Harpreet Singh won the gold, India's Vijay Kumar, Singapore's Lip Meng Poh, England's Michael Gault and Giustiniano were tied for the second spot at 574.

In the dramatic four-way shoot-off to determine the silver medallist, Giustiniano,58, shot the target of Lip Meng, who was stationed next to him. With no points, the Australian finished fifth.

"I am gutted, that's the best way to describe it. I have put my shots on the target of the guy next to me," said a crestfallen Giustiniano.

"Obviously when I lined up on the target I lined up on the wrong one. I feel it's unbelievable that I, on the first bay (of the range) would not line up on the first target. But all the electronic results show that I fired on the second target. Basically what happens is he gets the best of 10 shots and I get nothing," he said.

There was confusion after the shoot-out in which the four competitors took five shots.
Finally Vijay was declared the silver winner.

India's national coach Sunny Thomas said such incidents are rare at the shooting range.

"Such incidents are very rare. I have heard about such human errors, but this is first time in my career I am witnessing such an incident," he said.