[Inziladun]

I don't believe balrogs had any special hate for elves, though the elves had the most experience dealing with them. The fact that Legolas was the first to express terror at the balrog's appearance was probably due to his being the first to understand what it was. Of the others, only Gandalf would likely have known it was a balrog, or even what a balrog was. The First Age was a lot further removed for the mortal races than for elves.