"Still salty": The Challenge season 39 runner-up Nurys Mateo on missing Horacio, Kyland in finale

Nurys Mateo finished second place in part two of The Challenge season 39 finale, released on Wednesday, February 21. The reality star took the lead in the initial phase of the last task but got stuck while solving the Sudoku puzzle. This allowed contender Emanuel Neagu to gain momentum and finish the challenge first, becoming the ultimate winner.

Nurys’s journey on the MTV competition series had been rocky after facing several betrayals from close friends. During the ‘Conquest’ phase of the gameshow, Nurys was pushed into the elimination round alongside her boyfriend Horacio Gutiérrez Jr and close friend Kyland Young, two of the season’s fan favorites who many rooted to win.

Unfortunately, Nurys was forced to defeat them to keep moving ahead in the competition. After The Challenge season 39 finale, Nurys took to X to claim she’s “still salty” about not competing against strong challengers like Kyland, Horacio, Zara Zoffany, or Ravyn Rochelle.

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Kyland Young congratulates The Challenge season 39 runner-up

Nurys Mateo’s response about feeling “salty” came after Kyland congratulated her for becoming the “FIRST PLACE female finisher of The Challenge season 39.” She thanked her close friend for believing in her and wrote on X,

“Still salty I wasn’t standing next to you, Horacio, Zara and ravyn in that final but thank you for believing in me and always giving me my flowers Love youuu.”

In a subsequent tweet, the runner-up reflected how she felt about losing due to a Sudoku puzzle. Nurys blamed it all on the depravity of food and sleep, claiming she’s good at Sudoku and tends to solve them regularly in pen. She wrote,

“I’ll never let myself live that down honestly I legit do sudoku’s on the regular IN PEN I blame the lack of sleep and food but overall still extremely proud.”

According to her, the final task, an amalgamation of running, swimming, and lifting heavy weights, gave men an advantage over women. Though she credits winner Emanuel Neagu as a “great competitor,” she believes things didn’t work in her favor because she’s a woman. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nurys stated:

“I've got to give credit to Emanuel regardless. He is a great competitor. It just sucks. I mean, I hate to blame it on the fact that I'm a woman, but I feel like that was overall a big downfall.”

The runner-up highlighted in the interview how she had to “carry the same weight, run same distance, swim the same distance,” which essentially became her “downfall.” Instead, she hoped for an all-girls final because it wouldn’t have left her with any excuses. She told the publication,

“That's why I wanted it to be an all-girls final, because then it would have been 1,000 percent fair. And then if I would have came in second, I would have no excuse. Now, that is definitely my excuse, that I wasn't as fast or as strong as as a man, but that's okay.”

The Challenge season 39 finale witnessed Colleen bagging third place while Corey and Berna finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

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The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion released part two of its finale on MTV at 8 pm ET/PT. Those interested can watch the competition series on multiple streaming platforms, including Philo, DirecTV Stream, FuboTV, and Sling TV.