Czisny takes title

The American took the lead on Saturday and finished the job in Ontario when recording a total of 177.48 points.

That put Czisny ahead of both Italy's Kostner, who recorded 177.35 points, and Sweden's Viktoria Helgesson, who finished third with 145.75.

Though she did suffer a spill during a triple jump, Czisny was delighted to become the first American woman to secure a medal at Skate America since 2007.

"It was a bit of a relief to see it was just barely enough," she told AP.

"It was special for me. Guess it was nice to win something other than Skate Canada.

"That was a bit uncharacteristic of me to miss a jump early, but I had heard Carolina's score before I went out there and knew I had to fight for everything.

"There's some new things in my program. I really want to do the program justice. Sometimes I feel I focus too much on the jumps."

In the pairs competition, the German team of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy produced an excellent display in the free skate to record a total of 183.98 points.

They left China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao trailing in their wake. The Chinese pair took silver with 178.66 points despite leading following the short programme.

Savchenko and Szolkowy had been fifth after Saturday as the former fell during an opening throw triple axel but improved significantly to storm to their third Skate America title.

Szolkowy said: "We tried to skate just like in practice," Szolkowy said. "We showed yesterday was the result of trying new things."