"I sailed a bloody good race in super shifty conditions," said Junior, who is working closely with Maloney as they build towards the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. "This regatta has been great for Andy and I and shows the work we have been doing over the last few months is starting to come together for both of us.
"It feels good to win, just because it validates that what we are doing is working and we'll look to keep improving. We're really happy with how things are going. It's not really even about the results but about how we are moving forward."
Maloney and Meech have also proved they're in good form in 2018 and their win at Kiel Week comes on the back of gold at their last regatta at the World Cup in Hyeres and silver at the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma.
They went into the final day with a 4.5-point lead over their nearest rivals and, although they finished second in the double-points top-10 medal race, it didn't exactly go to plan.
"Unfortunately, it was a bit of a come-from-behind race so we didn't really execute our plan for the first half," Maloney said. "But it was really shifty and we managed to play the shifts well and got ourselves back in touch with the fleet and we had a really good downwind as well.
"It kind of summed up the week. You had to keep trying because it was never over until it was over.
"It's always good to come away with the win and helps the confidence ahead of the worlds as well. We are starting to get our processes working well and working well as a team so it feels like things are clicking. It will be good to keep the momentum going through to the worlds."
Jones and Saunders are keen to get some more racing in before the world championships after narrowly missing out on bronze in Kiel so will compete at next month's Nacra European championships.
"It was s a tough race for us," Saunders said. "We didn't have a great start but sailed well early on to be in medal position before getting stuck in a hole downwind trying to cover our competition. Unfortunately, they sailed around us in good breeze and we lost our chance.
"It was a pretty disappointing way for us to finish the regatta but luckily enough we have the Europeans in two weeks' time to bounce back and give ourselves a last event before the worlds."
Results and standings after the final day of the Kiel Week regatta overnight (NZ time):
Men's 470 (49 boats)
1st: Mathew Belcher / Will Ryan (AUS) 1 2 (13) 2 3 4 3 1 8 2 - 26 points
2nd: Anton Dahlberg / Fredrik Bergstrom (SWE) 2 5 1 1 1 (6) 2 3 6 16 - 37 pts
3rd: Kevin Peponnet / Jeremie Mion (FRA) 3 4 2 2 9 (11) 5 2 7 10 - 44 pts
8th: Paul Snow-Hansen / Dan Willcox (NZL) 4 2 11 3 6 3 4 15 (20) 18 - 66 pts
Women's 470 (28 boats)
1st: Silvia Mas / Patricia Cantero (ESP) 12 (29 UFD) 5 1 4 1 1 1 9 2 - 36 pts
2nd: Maria Bozi / Rafailina Klonaridou (GRE) 7 2 6 2 (29 BFD) 2 5 3 1 12 - 40 pts
3rd: Nadine Bohm / Ann-Christin Golias (GER) 2 4 3 7 3 4 6 (9) 6 8 - 43 pts
11th: Courtney Reynolds-Smith / Brianna Reynolds-Smith (NZL) 3 (16) 16 5 9 16 11 8 16 - 84 pts
49er (87 boats)
1st: Jonas Warrer / Jakob Precht Jensen (DEN) 5 11 5 5 1 (17) 11 1 8 1 6 - 54 pts
2nd: Federico Alonson / Arturo Alonson Tellechea (ESP) 3 15 3 1 7 5 7 14 (31) 2 8 - 65 pts
3rd: Łukasz Przybytek / Paweł Kolodzinski (POL) 3 14 7 2 4 9 5 13 (16) 3 10 - 70 pts
7th: Josh Porebski / Trent Ripey (NZL) 5 3 3 6 5 (21) 3 15 10 20 14 - 84 pts
8th: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (NZL) 15 2 1 1 9 18 13 (22) 7 14 12 - 92 pts
13th: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (NZL) 4 4 28 15 6 1 (32) 17 3 9 - 87 pts
49erFX (54 boats)
1st: Alex Maloney / Molly Meech (NZL) 3 4 1 10 6 1 5 13.5 1 (14) 4 - 48.5 pts
2nd: Tina Lutz / Susann Beucke (GER) 5 3 3 1 8 4 8 (13.5) 5 12 12 - 61 pts
3rd: Julia Gross / Hanna Klinga (SWE) 2 5 6 7 3 3 (18) 10 13 2 14 - 65 pts
Finn (79 boats)
1st: Josh Junior (NZL) 10 (20) 5 2 3 13 1 15 8 - 57 pts
2nd: Anders Pedersen (NOR) 12 1 11 (20) 11 9 2 11 4 - 61 pts
3rd: Ed Wright (GBR) 3 4 13 (17) 12 1 8 7 16 - 64 pts
4th: Andy Maloney (NZL) 15 7 3 1 14 7 9 (16) 12 - 68 pts
Nacra 17 (44 boats)
1st: John Gimson / Anna Burnet (GBR) 3 2 5 1 3 1 3 2 (11) 3 12 - 35 pts
2nd: Jason Waterhouse / Lisa Darmanin (AUS) 1 1 1 2 3 6 (18) 5 7 4 6 - 36 pts
3rd: Thomas Zajac / Barbara Matz (AUT) 2 4 3 3 2 4 11 (13) 3 5 14 - 51 pts
4th: Gemma Jones / Jason Saunders (NZL) 2 5 1 5 4 5 6 7 (8) 1 16 - 52 pts
10th: Liv Mackay / Micah Wilkinson (NZL) 4 5 (24 DNF) 2 1 11 7 10 14 11 20 - 85 pts
Women's Laser Radial (82 boats)
1st: Anne-Marie Rindom (DEN) 2 1 (5) 5 2 4 1 2 - 17 pts
2nd: Line Flem Host (NOR) 1 (11) 1 4 1 3 2 14 - 26 pts
3rd: Josefin Olsson (SWE) 3 (40 BFD) 3 6 4 5 4 6 - 31 pts
13th: Susannah Pyatt (NZL) 5 11 12 3 6 (22) 17 - 54 pts
Laser Radial worlds (97 boats)
1st: Zac Littlewood (AUS) 4 1 2 1 1 1 1 (6) 3 4 - 18 pts
2nd: Aleksander Arian (POL) 3 1 1 10 4 2 4 3 5 (15) - 33 pts
3rd: Caelin Winchcombe (AUS) 2 2 1 2 2 4 (36) 19 1 1 - 34 pts
6th: Josh Armit (NZL) 1 3 (47 DNC) 1 8 12 18 2 4 6 - 55 pts
42nd: Caleb Armit (NZL) 5 34 21 18 44 (46) 32 25 44 38 - 260 pts
