L.A. Not Plaatjes’ Top Pick : Marathon: It wasn’t his second, either, but politics kept him out of races in Rotterdam and London.

Mark Plaatjes won Sunday’s Los Angeles Marathon, a race he never intended to enter.

Plaatjes, a former South African who has applied for American citizenship, tried first to get into the Rotterdam Marathon. He was told that race’s sponsor, Shell Oil Co., was already sensitive about its holdings in South Africa and didn’t want Plaatjes in the race.

Then he tried London. Race organizers there put him off and put him off. Finally, Plaatjes asked just to enter and said he would pay his own way. They never returned his calls.

“It’s politics,” Plaatjes said. “I’m from South Africa, and they don’t want to touch me.”

The U.S. track and field federation apparently doesn’t want to touch Plaatjes, either, even though he has run the fastest time this season by an American marathoner. He is caught in a tangled political-legal web that might keep him from his dream: the Olympic Games.

Plaatjes, scheduled to become a citizen in 1993, after the Barcelona Olympics, should be eligible to represent the United States in non-Olympic competition. But The Athletics Congress, which governs U.S. track and field, is balking. Many have suggested to Plaatjes that he should sue to become eligible.

He will have none of it.

“I’ve been fighting battles all my life,” he said. “I don’t want to fight anymore.”

Race officials on Monday still did not know the official number of entrants. But they did know the number of finishers--14,729--up from last year’s 14,298.

Race officials also had no explanation for the discrepancy between their crowd estimate as opposed to the one given by the L.A. Police Department.

Race president Bill Burke said Sunday that the crowds were 30-40% greater than last year’s, which were estimated by the race at a million spectators. In fact, Burke said, the enthusiasm of the crowd this year was so great that the noise interfered with the audio of the television crews on the course.

The police say, however, that only an estimated 250,000 were making the noise.

Sgt. Larry Henness, officer in charge of special events, said the previous crowd estimates released by the police might have been over-optimistic, or an effort to help a growing event.

“Estimates tend to grow and pretty soon they get unrealistic,” he said. “The bigger numbers get published by the media and get listened to. Part of it is natural enthusiasm and a feeling it’s got to grow.”

Burke and at least one elite runner who had been in the race before said there was no doubt that this year’s crowds were the race’s largest ever.

“I don’t want to see the major newspaper in this town downgrading the impact of this event,” Burke said.

Overnight ratings for the marathon, covered live by KCOP (Channel 13), were significantly down from last year.

The prerace show had a 6.3 rating and 20 share. The race, televised from 9 a.m. until noon, had a 7.7 rating and 21 share.

Last year’s race, which was 30 minutes earlier, had a 10.4 rating and a 29 share.

Times staff writer Laurie Becklund contributed to this story.