KEY POINTS:
A mouthful of pain has interfered with Nick Willis' plans to take a bite out of his New Zealand 1500m record this week.
But he is sure it will not impact on his Beijing campaign.
The US-based 25-year-old Commonwealth champion has had his wisdom teeth removed after they began causing him trouble.
He had been hoping to line up in the prestigious Golden League meeting in Rome on Friday where he was shaping up to better his national record of 3m 32.17s, set in Paris two years ago.
"We've decided to wait two weeks to head over [to Europe] and run in Monaco instead," Willis said yesterday.
"This is a blessing in disguise and we are excited how this will help my momentum heading into Beijing."
It was at the Rome track that Willis ran his qualifying time for the 2004 Olympics.
The track has been the scene of several records, not least of which is Hicham El Guerrouj's world record of 3m 26s set in 1998.
The Monaco race will be at the Herculis Super Grand Prix event on July 29, 17 days before Willis lines up in the Olympic heats. He will have another race in Finland over 800m on August 3.
Willis showed terrific form last month, lowering his personal best in the mile by 2s to 3m 50.66s in Oregon, and clocking an Olympic qualifying 1m 45.87s in New York.
Several other New Zealand Olympians are already in Europe lining up pre-Games events, Athletics NZ high performance director Kevin Ankrom said yesterday.
Sprinter James Dolphin has raced in France and Belgium where he ran on the weekend, finishing second in the 200m in 21.36s and fourth in the 100m in 10.71s.
Kimberley Smith, a high hope in the 10,000m, is also in Belgium where she is aiming to compete in several up-coming races, probably over shorter distances.
