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Hilton
Returns to Win
British Championship
Elliot Hilton |
February 25, 2008
Article & Photo © J.
Barry Mittan
Elliot Hilton returned from a two-year hiatus to
win the British senior men's championship for 2007-08. Hilton was
the junior champion in 2004-05, the same season that he finished
16th at Junior Worlds. "I hadn't competed since the Junior Grand
Prix in Gdansk in 2005," he explained. "I was injured that
year when I was 15. I had two stress fractures in my back from repeated
flat-footed landings. I was off the ice for five months, then I could
only do 15 minutes of skating three times a week. I had to do extensive
physical therapy and off ice work to strengthen my core muscles.
It was at least eight months before I was back to full strength."
"My goal at the British was just to get out
and skate," he said. "I knew I could skate well enough
to get to Europeans. Before this season, I used to mess up and do
stupid things. I've learned more to keep focused. When competed in
his first European Championships in January, he finished 25th.
Yuri Bureiko and Marina Serova coach Hilton, who
trains in Coventry. "I had actually given up, because I didn't
like skating any more. But after a few months of not skating, I missed
it and decided I had to move," he continued. "So in February
2007, I started working with Yuri. He's a great skater and when he
does things on the ice, I try to think about how I can do better." Hilton
only trains three hours a day, three times a week, and two hours
a day on two other days. "Except for ballet a few times, I don't
do very much off ice," he said.
Hilton began skating when he was nine. "We
had a birthday party for my friends at the skating rink and I just
went along," he recalled. "When I was skating, Karen barber
asked me who was giving me lessons and I told her no one. So I started
taking lessons from her and her husband, Steven."
He landed his first double axel and triple toe loop
at 13 and had all his triples except the axel by 15. "I'm working
on the triple axel now," he said. "The first time I landed
it clean was at the practice before the short program at Europeans
in Zagreb. I was working on a quad toe before I was injured, but
not again. It was actually better than my triple axel."
The 18-year-old does a triple lutz-triple toe, triple
flip and double axel in his short program. For the long, he includes
a triple lutz-triple toe, triple flip-triple toe, triple salchow-half
loop-triple salchow, triple flip, triple lutz, and three double axels. "I'm
working on triple lutz-triple toe-triple loop," Hilton stated. "but
it's not consistent. I also need to get my spins at a higher level."
Bureiko choreographed his 2007-08 programs. For
the short, Hilton is skating to music from the "Lord of the
Rings" soundtrack, while for the long he is using the soundtrack
of "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". "Both of my programs
are new," Hilton noted. "We wanted to be careful with the
music and keep it clean and sharp and simple. I like loads of different
types of music. You know when you hear it that you want to skate
to it." Hilton is using "Live and Let Die" by Guns
and Roses for a show program.
Off ice, he plays guitar in a band named Dune. "It's
addictive," he said. "We play acoustic and rock. I listen
to mainly hard roc music like Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses." He
also likes to hang out with friends and plays a little tennis and
soccer.
Hilton has finished high school, but doesn't have
any future educational plans. "I want to compete until I'm about
25, then do some shows and go into coaching," he said. |