Roman Povazhny is putting Eastbourne Eagles ahead of his own personal ambitions when he rides at Arlington Stadium tomorrow night.

The little Russian will line up against Elite League title challengers Poole Pirates instead of riding in the practice for Sunday's European Championship final in Belgium.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook said: "Roman could have gone to Belgium a day early, but he chose to ride against Poole."

The decision is bound to affect Povazhny's chances of individual glory at Zolder.

He will race away from Arlington after tomorrow night's meeting in time to take his place in the European Championship but will not have had a chance to ride the Belgian track.

Cook said: "Roman made it clear he wanted to be at Arlington. His enthusiasm for Eastbourne is amazing."

The Russian has top scored for Eastbourne in two of the last three matches, scoring 12 points against Belle Vue and 13 in the match at Wolverhampton.

One of Povazhny's rivals at Zolder will be Poole's Polish star Krzysztof Cegielski, who will not be riding against Eastbourne.

That might be good news for Eagles because Cegielski, who will be at the European Championship practice, was the matchwinner when the Pirates won 46-44 at Arlington earlier in the season. Cegielski's 16 points helped Poole to victory.

The Pirates will be out to plunder another win this time in their bid to snatch the league title from hot favourites Oxford.

Cook knows his side will have their work cut out against a team who are flying high, with Tony Rickardsson on the brink of being crowned world champion again, and Gary Havelock enjoying one of the best spells of his career.

Cook added: "I reckon it's our toughest meeting of the season, bearing in mind they were the only team to beat us at home before Joe Screen was injured.

"They are a quality team, and man for man I rate them better than Oxford, who look like they are going to win the league.

"One thing is for sure. It will tell us a lot about ourselves. Looking ahead to next season, it will show what we are capable of when we come up against a top team."

Eastbourne: Martin Dugard, Brent Werner, Toni Svab, David Norris, Dean Barker, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Roman Povazhny.

Poole: Gary Havelock, Lars Gunnestad, Jason Lyons, Magnus Zetterstrom, Tony Rickardsson, Grzegorz Walasek, Craig Watson.

Eastbourne have switched their match against top of the table Oxford next Saturday, September 1, to a 3.0 start to avoid a clash with the Germany v England World Cup qualifier, which is live on TV.